J.R. Rain and Peep Shows

I was....

At last count, I had 60 different jobs prior to writing full time. Probably my most interesting job was working as a squire at Medieval Times. Nothing says “manly” like running around in fake chainmail tights. Mostly, though, I worked as an insurance claims investigator and later as a private investigator.

I am....

My name’s J.R. Rain and I write mystery novels. Granted, my books are packaged to look like many different kinds of books, from supernatural romantic suspense to adventure thrillers, but at their very heart my books are always mystery novels first.

I will be....

...writing as many books as I possibly can. ;)

What prompted you to go back to some of your previous stories and redesign their covers?

My early covers were fairly pathetic, although I certainly did the best I could. (You can see an example of the first MOON DANCE cover on Amazon.com if you click on the “paperback” option.) Well, no one thing prompted me to redesign my covers, other my own driving need to put the best-looking product I could out there. Luckily, I came across a wonderful cover designer (Bren at bren@gotchacoveredbydesign.com), and she helped me find some book cover success. Hell, I would still be lost without her.

What issues have you had with the redesign?

Well, my cover designer and I work well together. I am open to her suggestions, and she’s quick to implement my ideas. I truly think that’s the best formula.

Did you design the covers yourself or hire a graphic designer?

I designed the covers to DARK HORSE and THE MUMMY CASE myself. Sometimes simple is best, especially for a murder mystery. But my paranormal mysteries needed some pop, and so that’s where I sought help. Bren happened to be a graphic design friend of mine who was looking to get into book covers--and I just happened to be a writer in search of a book cover designer. A match made in heaven!

How has this experience affected future cover designs that you are planning?

My future designs are up in the air. I suppose I should someday brand a style or a font for all my book covers, but I truly love having all my books look different. I like thinking that each cover is a minor work of art. So, to answer your question, my future plans are up in the air. Of course, when you work with a designer as awesome as Bren, well, there’s really very little to worry about.

I already know that the material that you write between the covers is great but other than word of mouth how do you promote your books to new readers?

I give live peep shows on the weekends. Kidding! (Or am I?) Well, I was on Amazon Kindle for over eight months before I started seeing any real success. I studied other successful writers and how they marketed their books and tried to emulate them. My best advice, though, is to think about following future market trends. If paranormals are hot, write one. If young adult romances are hot, then write one. Of course, put your own spin on the story and make it your own, but why not follow the hot trends? Doing so guarantees book sales. Oh, and publish your books ASAP on Kindle. I no longer even bother with the NY publishers. Tides are turning, and the new wave of publishing is ebooks. Surfs up.

Happy writing, and I wish you all a ton of success!

J.R. Rain

www.jrrain.com

Good Books, Good Wine, Good FriendsWhat Could be Better.

Living Indie

I was stuck on a hamster wheel.

I am off that wheel as an indie author.

I will be successful.

After four years of waffling and wondering 'what if,' I finally made the decision to go indie. I self-released my first novella, Kept, in November of 2008. So many people think self-publishers 'failed' at traditional publishing. But that's like saying I failed at becoming an ice skater. Or a prima ballerina. Those weren't really life goals I was going for.

This isn't to say that I never had a dream of being NY pubbed. I did. But then I learned more about it. The more I learned, the less appealing it became. I can't say I really made much of an effort. I think if I had, I'd be talking about my “first sale” right now. But I'm instead talking about how much I love being indie.

NY was unappealing but not just because of long odds. Indies eat long odds for breakfast. I'm not scared of that. It was because there was so much outside my control in the traditional system of publishing. Things which could stand in my way of success.

If I'm going to fail, I'm going to do it based on my choices, not based on a stupid title or cover someone in the marketing department okay'd. Originally the idea was to release a free/low cost novella in order to build platform so I wouldn't be screwed later with a trad publisher and little time to sell on shelves.

As I got into it I loved it so much that now I'm not interested in a NY publisher. I like what I'm doing.

My dreams transformed from being about being “accepted” by a “real publisher” to succeeding as an indie and building my own readership. My emotional state went from depressed and anxious to excited and happy... energized by what I'm doing and the possibilities.

I'm especially excited by the opportunities starting to open up in ebooks. Kept has sold almost 6,000 copies on Kindle, 1,000 of which happened this month. (So the build has been slow but I'm just starting to see some real fruit from my efforts.) Kept has reached as high as 209 in the overall Kindle store and Claimed, the second novella, has reached 444. (Out of 500,000 books.)

So far the biggest obstacle has been the naysaying and stigma. However, anything worth doing is going to be controversial to someone. And the more I start to succeed, the less I care what people who would rather let their words rot away in a drawer think about me. It often strikes me as either vanity or fear of rejection from “real readers.”

Who cares if I have a “real publisher?” I have real readers. And the readers are the only thing that matters. Commercial publishing has obscured and twisted the original goal of publication to begin with. To be read. To be heard. And hopefully to make money from it so you can afford to keep doing it.

A new challenge I'm facing is having to get cover art for my novella anthology, Blood Lust, redesigned because of a mistake on my part. But it's a learning experience. I'll get the redesign and carry on. I'm also in the process of preparing a podcast of Blood Lust and will soon be doing rewrites for the next book.

If you're interested in checking me out, Kept, Claimed, and Mated (The novellas in Blood Lust) are all available in ebook on Smashwords.com and Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. Though Kept can also be picked up free from my site in PDF: http://zoewinters.wordpress.com/kept/

I don't consider myself to have reached the pinnacle by any stretch, but I have started to do well enough that I'm looking less and less like a crazy person for what I've been saying about indie authorship for the past year and a half now. And crazy can only get you so far.

Zoe Winters

http://www.zoewinters.org

Books - Stephanie Meyer is releasing a new book

Since several of my friends are HUGE Twilight Fans I thought I would post this.

The book will be available as a hardback June 5th (click the image to the left to pre-order) or as a free online download The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella from NOON June 7th until July 5th.

While I enjoyed the first four books and will be buying this book in hardback to have the complete set, I don't find myself obsessing over the characters like certain friends I have do.

I didn't read any of the books until after I saw Twilight in the theater with one of my friends. My teenager has absolutely no interest in the books (she finds Bella to be to whiny) so they weren't even in my house.

I immediately went home and ordered all four books. After I received them I read one book each day for four days. In fact I have read them all around five times now. That doesn't mean I can quote lines from the books or describe what Bella was wearing in a certain chapter it just means that I found the books to be a pleasant read. I didn't dissect them to try to prove that Bella and Edward had an abusive relationship. I just read them with respect for the author who composed this series of works based on a dream that she had.

I have had several dreams that I thought would make great books. However I have always had two problems with them.
1) The really good ones fade and just leave an impression upon waking
2) I have never had the confidence to write my books beyond the first two-three chapters. (and I have never let anyone read my writings until this last year.)

Having said that I was surprised while watching New Moon that I actually found Jacob a much more interesting character. While I enjoyed his character in the book I never actually found myself hoping that he would win Bella away from Edward.

If I had seen all of the movies first I would be rooting for Jacob big time. It makes me feel old to know that Taylor Lautner is only four months older than my daughter. If I was my daughter I would seriously be crushing on him. But I am not. George Clooney, Vin Diesel, and Adrian Paul are more my speed. Though I will admit that when I was her age I was crushing on Sean Connery (Highlander era not James Bond era.) I am just now realizing that he was in his late 50s when those movies were made. I have always found older men to be much more interesting than the younger ones.

I think of all the characters introduced in Ms Meyer's books the one I would like to read more about would be Jacob after the events of New Dawn. But in the meantime I will read Bree's story in the midst of all my other reading that I have lined up.