Mars Needs Writers
  • Blog-O-Rama
  • The Store Thing
  • That Thing We Did
  • The Newest Thing

Remember that free read we were promising...

7/30/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
...once upon a time? Well, imagine how surprised we were to discover that the giveaway dates had already come and gone before we'd expected.
 
Yeah. When it comes to marketing our novels, we suck on a level that's levels beyond the usual suckage.
 
We're not bad people. See? We like puppies. We especially like pug puppies.

 
What happened was this: When a writer signs up with KDP Select, they're allowed five days to "promote" their product (= give it away for free) to Amazon's audience. The free approach may or may not be a swell idea -- since a fellow writer told us he'd never had a negative review until he put his novel up for grabs...and, then, oh, Lordy, did things change -- but, since the audience for Something Wicked had dwindled, we thought we'd give it a try, anyway.
 
We selected two days in July to promote the story and three days in August. We thought we'd do a minimum of promotion for the first round (this blog and we hit a couple of sites that list free novels) and use Ebook Booster for the August run. We don't know if Ebook Booster is any good, and the $40 out-of-pocket charge is roughly all of the royalties we've collected from Wicked in the last twelve months, but it was worth a try.
 
Because, if we somehow forgot to tell anyone that SW was a freebie, the Ebook Booster people would have our back. Which, of course, is exactly what happened when we failed to remember the two days we'd selected in July. Rather, we remembered the days incorrectly. We thought the promo was going to run 07/27-07/28...and we were wrong. It ran, unnoticed, on 07/23-07/24.
 
We discovered this when a new Something Wicked review popped up on Amazon. The reader was kind enough to write that the book was more entertaining than he'd expected. This comment led one of us to ask, "Well, why would you buy a novel if you didn't think it would be any good?" and the other one of us to say, "Uh-oh."
 
Yep. The freebie had hit the market and we'd failed to share it with our own tiny world, the good people who visit MarsNeedsWriters.
 
Trying to find a positive spin on things, we came up with this: We garnered a new review! Yay! Also, we can now gauge the effectiveness of paying for the efforts of Ebook Booster.
 
If you'd like, you can play along. Without any kind of decent marketing, SW garnered 656 downloads. Sadly, not an impressive number. The next series of free dates will be 08/21-08/23 and Ebook Booster has shared this info with its network of sites. So far, twelve of those sites have emailed us, telling us that they've received the request and they may (or may not) be promoting our work at that time. We've got our fingers crossed.
 
After the next promotion runs, we'll share the download number with you.
 
Quote o' the day:  "If you want your writing to be taken seriously, don't marry and have kids, and above all, don't die. But if you have to die, commit suicide. They approve of that." -- Ursula K. Le Guin


0 Comments

The future is rushing upon us...

7/23/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
...but, as you can see, we're already preparing for it. Well, kind of. Mostly.
 
On occasion.
 
Maybe not today, not as much as we should have, but we've been putting in the hours. Today, we spent our morning, strolling about as we plotted Chapter Three of Ashes & Ink. We're fairly pleased with how things came out. Plot points are lining up, some new characters are arriving, and we don't really know where things are going but we're happy with the story at this very moment. The finished product remains a mystery, of course, and we'll inevitably forget some of the minor details that we discussed during our long hike -- and we're about to tell you why.
 
Because...because...
 
Well, because, when we got home and one of us sat down to write the chapter notes, she remembered that the computer we use happens to hold her favorite kind of electronic crack. Spider Solitaire. Intending to spend a few minutes playing cards, she lost over an hour to the exercise (won a few games, dropped a few games. It all shakes out in the wash). She couldn't help herself. There are just some days when she wants to play hookey.
 
So the other one of us took over. But, of course, it was his turn to write today's blog as well, so he turned his attention to that, instead. Before he could write the piece, he (naturally) needed a photo for the blog spot's upper left-hand corner so he went in search of this week's picture. In the course of that adventure, he found the free Futurama HEAD-IN-A-JAR Creator app on Google Play. Which somehow consumed over an hour of his life as he gleefully tinkered with the toy to create the image you see above.
 
But then he came to a little stumbling block. He wanted both of the images to show as one on the blog but the app doesn't provide such an option and he lacks the skills to do it himself. Since he hadn't actually written anything today, you might think he'd be hesitant to approach the Spider Solitaire addict but, no, not really. Using her graphics skills, she melded everything into one image and, zing!, both of us decided to play hooky for the rest of the day.
 
Instead, we're going to watch Blast Vegas on the DVR. Because, if the future holds a giant sand snake fulfilling an ancient Egyptian curse, we want to be prepared.
 
No quote o' the day. While looking for a blog photo, Harrell found several websites devoted to viola jokes. (Yes, really.) He doesn't play the viola, he doesn't know anyone who plays the viola, he's not all that clear on what a viola exactly is, but he lost a good half hour reading the jokes, anyway. Here's one of them:

One day Timmy came home from school very excited. "Mommy, Mommy, Guess what? Today in English I got all the way to the end of the alphabet, and everyone else got messed up around 'P'!"
His mother said, "Very good, dear. That's because you're a violist."
The next day, Timmy was even more excited. "Mommy, Mommy, guess what! Today in math I counted all the way to ten, but everyone else got messed up around seven!"
"Very good, dear," his mother replied. "That's because you're a violist." On the third day, Timmy was beside himself. "Mommy, Mommy, today we measured ourselves and I'm the tallest one in my class! Is that because I'm a violist?"
"No dear," she said. "That's because you're 26 years old."

2 Comments

People like the nasty stuff...

7/16/2013

3 Comments

 
Picture
...which is, more or less, what we took away from a recent email.
 
One of the lovelies who wander through this Blog-O-Rama took the time to contact us. After reading last week's blog, she was concerned that we might be hurting sales of our soon-to-be-re-released paranormal romance by removing its erotic elements. In the blog, we'd warned, The new take is still steamy but the graphic stuff has disappeared behind closed doors, and this correspondent was kind enough to say we were making a mistake. We won't quote her directly -- especially since she has yet to respond to our request, asking if we COULD quote her directly -- but our takeaway was, readers of werewolf lovin' like their action hot, heavy, and clearly descriptive. 
 
We don't have a problem with that. Obviously not, since we wrote the original steamy sections. Our gut feeling was, maybe we'd be expanding the audience for the story. After all, most romance readers are women and most women like a little mystery in their stories. Also, our hero is all man but he's also all wolf (so to speak) and the larger readership might well prefer we kept the randy stuff behind a veil. Yes, we'd have to lose the novella's positive review from Emily at SensualReads.com but it was a small price to pay for a bit of decorum.
 
Shows what we know.
 
Today, as we're puzzling over what to do next with the story, we come across ShortList magazine -- free on Google play, if you're interested -- and the folks there are running a short interview with Ron Perlman. Perlman played the lead in the movie Hellboy, one of our favorite superhero flicks ever, and he's far from the typical romantic leading man. Instead of a blue-eyed handsome man, Hellboy is, per creator Mike Mignola, a demon from actual Hell. He (Hellboy, not Mike Mignola) has horns and a massive stone fist. He's not exactly a babe magnet...or so we thought.
 
Perlman discovered differently. Here's what the actor told ShortList about his fan base: "I've not read any fan mail since the first Hellboy on account of how graphic it was. Certain people, mostly women, wanted to do some strange things to the beast, so I decided that weird sh*t was none of my business."
 
So there you are. The world is weird (except for thee and me, and we're not so sure about thee) and there's a little bit of kinky in all of us. Our only question now is, should there be a lot of bit of kinky in our paranormal romance?
 
Quote o the day: "That is exactly why our lives suck. I mean, come on, we hunt monsters. What the hell? I mean, normal people, they see a monster and they run." Dean Winchester, Supernatural

3 Comments

We decided to quit our publisher...

7/10/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
...even though we like this particular organization. 
 
Three years ago, we signed a contract with Cobblestone Press for our werewolfish romance novella, Wicked Games. It was a fairly smooth ride, all around. Acceptance came fairly quickly and a contract soon followed. To our pleasure, the contract was written in English instead of legalese and the terms were fair.  We were pleased to sign it.
 
The contract offer came in April, 2010, and Leanne Salter, Managing Editor, first reviewed our manuscript in May. We did three complete edits in quick order and Leanne was terrific every step of the way.  When the story was complete, the Cobblestone team asked our thoughts about the cover (we wanted a full moon in there somewhere) before offering us a choice of cover artists. We selected Sable Grey. By the end of May, Sable had given us a sexy cover that practically shouted hot romance. We were impressed.
 
The image above is by Miriam Uribe, visual artist. She designed it on a lark and it makes us smile.
 
Rocketing along, the C.P. machine had the story on-line and available for purchase by July, 2010. Every month since then, they've mailed us each our own royalty check. We don't remember a check ever arriving late and we never had reason to doubt the numbers Cobblestone shared with us. All in all, we've had a fine relationship with the gang out in Mississippi.
 
So why did we ask to have our rights returned just as soon as the contract allowed? It wasn't Cobblestone, it was us.
 
Also, there was this: Our first royalty check clocked in at over $60 each. Our latest royalty check? 61 cents per author.  The story's Amazon Best Sellers Rank is nudging the 800,000 mark in the Kindle Store. In short, Wicked Games isn't selling. (Would our Amazon ratings be different if we'd maintained a steady output of paranormal romances, all published under the C.P. banner? We think so. But, since we wandered off to write whatever struck our fancy, romance readers saw us as one-and-done.)
 
Now, even though the original contract promised to return our rights after three years upon request, we knew it wouldn't be that simple. When we contacted Deanna Lee, Cobblestone's publisher, asking for our release, we expected a little trouble. A little delay here, a tiny problem there, and -- the next thing you know -- our three year contract has lasted four years. But we asked, anyway.
 
You know what? We were too cynical. Shortly after we emailed, we received our release. (It probably helps when your royalty checks nearly equal the cost of the postage to send them.) The "Notification of Agreement Termination" was a simple one-pager, giving us an exit date and reminding us of the contract's original provisions. We could no longer use Sable Grey's cover art -- but wouldn't that have been nice? -- and we couldn't use the edited manuscript. The unedited version, on the other hand, was ours after August 1st. We could use the rough take in whatever way we'd like.
 
So here's the plan: New cover. (No, not the one up in the left hand corner. That was a Fiverr cover and created for fun.) Renée is working on it right this second and you can bet there will be a full moon on the thing somewhere. The new edit will go out to beta readers soon -- and, if you're a fan of erotic romance, you need to buy the old version, STAT, while it's still available. The new take is still steamy but the graphic stuff has disappeared behind closed doors. Despite this change, and all of the paragraphs that we lost because of it, the latest manuscript is longer than the original.

Then there's the subject of price. Cobblestone retails the novella for $4.99 but, per our sales ranking, we're guessing the rest of the world thinks this is a little rich for a 67-page novella. We worry that they may be right. We're currently debating the $2.99 price tag versus the 99-cent special.
 
If you have a suggestion, let us know.
 
Quote o' the day: "Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities." -- Theodor Seuss Geisel

2 Comments

Here in the States...

7/2/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
...we're about to go on holiday. There will be no fireworks in our neighborhood -- the entire area was in danger of smoke inhalation just a few days ago and, even now, a wildfire blazes out of control -- but that doesn't mean we can't have fun. In fact, in the spirit of fun, we're going to strip down to our skivvies and go jump through the back-and-forth spray of the front lawn sprinkler...which will frighten and/or repulse the neighbors but that's the price they pay for allowing a couple of writers in the neighborhood.
 
Before we go splashing about, there's a few things we'd like to share with you. To start with, we'd like to give away -- as in FREE -- several audio editions of Aly's Luck. The team at ACX contacted us and told us we could have five unabridged copies to give out to anyone who will post a review, mention the audio book on a blog, or somehow "spread the word" (their phraseology). 
 
If you prefer short stories, this is not the tale for you. The A. L. listening experience runs for over nine hours but it goes quickly; our narrator, Alexander McConnell, did a terrific job. Give him a try, you'll see. The bottom line is, if you like free, take a moment to email us at marsneedswriters(at)gmail.com, provide us an email address so we know how to contact you back , and we'll get you a copy. First come, first served.
 
Secondly, also free, we were recently interviewed by the mysterious An Alleged Author -- and you'll find our conversation right here. If you wander through the blog spot, you'll see that A.A.A. is an interesting woman and she has a fun site. Plus, she likes wine and we like people who like wine. A bucket of questions were asked, we talked mostly about our writing and a little too much about ourselves, so we'll completely understand if you don't read the whole thing.
 
However, you should know, there will be a quiz later.
 
Finally, no, we will not be posting photos of ourselves, dressed in skivvies and covered with sprinkler spray. As our neighbors will soon be able to verify, some things aren't meant to be seen in the light of day.
 
Drinking: 2012 Zinfandel Les Enfants Terribles. A.A. happened to mention wine and here we are. This particular goodness goes pretty darned well with a 4th of July barbeque.
 
Quote o' the day: "I really don't know how to advise you. Things involved with a computer fill me with a childlike terror. Now, if it were a nice ogre or some such I'd be more in my element." -- Giles, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

0 Comments

    Come on in! This

    is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

    Picture

                       Renée         &       Harrell


    It's about time you got here.

    We aren't kidding about the wine.
     
    This is where we talk about writing...
    ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.
     
    Thanks for stopping by. It wouldn't be the same without you.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2021
    July 2020
    June 2016
    March 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    101 Things To Avoid Doing Before You Die
    101 Things To Do Before You Die
    2012 Zinfandel Les Enfants Terribles
    50 Faust Dates
    50 Shades Of Grey
    5 Star Reviews
    Abigail Breslin
    Aces Weekly
    Acting Classes Melbourne
    Acx
    Agent Carter
    Age Of Dinosaurs
    A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
    Alex Adventure
    Alex Cross And The Big Bag Of Gold
    Alex Sheikman
    All Fool's Day
    All Saints' Day
    Aly's Luck
    Amazon
    Amazon.de
    Amazon Eu
    Amazon Preorder
    Amazon Prime
    A. Meredith Walters
    American Horror Story
    Amy C. Cosper
    Angelfall
    Animasher
    Anja Bauermeister
    Anne Glynn
    Annual Income In Tajikistan
    Aphrodite Hunt
    April Fools
    April Fool's Day
    Arizona
    Arizona Museum Of Natural History
    Ashes & Ink
    A Tale Of Two Cities
    Atlanta Nights
    At The Mountains Of Madness
    Audiobook
    Audiobook Narration
    A Very Scary Solstice
    Azatamut
    Azerbaijan
    Babelcube
    Bad Book Covers
    Bad Monkey
    Bag Of Bones
    Baking
    Beautiful Disaster
    Bestessays.org
    Best Fat Burner Pills
    Best-seller
    Best Sellers In Kindle
    Better Off Ted
    Betty Willis
    Bibliomancy
    Bigstock
    Bigstockphoto.com
    Bill Fitzhugh
    Bill Plympton
    Birgit Hausmayer
    Black Adder
    Black Eyed Peas
    Blake M. Petit
    Blast Vegas
    Blog
    Blog-O-Rama
    Bobcat Goldthwait
    Bob's Burgers
    Book Reviews
    Bookrix
    Book Trailers
    Breathless
    Brown Recluse Spiders
    Bucket List
    Buffy The Vampire Slayer
    Business Insider
    Buzz Bernard
    Cambodia
    Can
    Candace
    Cara Nelson
    Carl Hiaasen
    Cassandra Parkin
    Cassysailermoon
    Cast A Deadly Spell
    Castle
    Casual Gourmet Chicken Sausage
    Celtic Cross
    Ceromancy
    Chanel
    Chicken Soup For The Soul
    Choluteca
    Chris Pine
    Christopher Marlowe
    Chuck Palahniuk
    Clams
    Climb Mount Everest
    Clorox Bleach & Blue
    Cobblestone Press
    Cockneys Vs Zombies
    Cold
    Cooking With Pooh
    Corante.com
    Cover Design
    Crank: High Voltage
    Createspace
    Cynthia Vespia
    Damned
    Dancing Days
    Dark Shadows
    David Danger
    David Llloyd
    Dead Sparrow
    Dean Koontz
    Deanna Lee
    Dean Wesley Smith
    Deep Thoughts
    Demon Hunter: Saga
    Depois Que Tudo Ficou Ruim
    Destined
    Detective Novels
    Digital Science Fiction
    Directorio
    D.I.Y. Or Die
    Doctor Sleep: A Novel
    Donald E Westlake
    Donuts
    Dusk Till Dawn The Series
    Easy Peasy
    Ebook Booster
    Ebook Pricing
    Edge Of Tomorrow
    Eerie
    Ellery Queen
    Emf Meter
    Enter The Fist
    Ereaderiq
    Ereader Iq
    Eric Shanower
    Escudo
    Eyewall
    Fake
    Fan Letters
    Faust
    Fawlty Towers
    Felicia Day
    Fergie
    Fifty
    Fiverr.com
    Fl
    Flu
    Fortune-telling
    Fotolia
    Fox In Socks
    Frankenstein
    Free
    Free Kindle Books
    Fried Cockroaches
    Fugu
    Futurama
    Gabbiano Chianti 2010
    Gale Haut
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    George C. Scott
    Germentrude Boggmonstro
    Get-rich-quick
    Ghost In The Invisible Bikini
    Giles
    Girl Detective
    Glee
    Go!Animate
    God Is Dead And I Don
    Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake
    Golgotha
    Golgotha Ar
    Gonxha
    Good Ereader
    Good Show Sir
    Gotham
    Grandma
    Grandmas Denturesc1be08622e
    Griffin Hayes
    Guardians Of The Galaxy
    Gun-jitsu
    Halloween
    Hamish Macbeth
    Harry Potter And The Big Bag Of Gold
    Haunter
    Head-in-a-jar Creator
    Hellboy
    Hilaria
    Honduras
    Hotel Connor
    How To Write A Best-Seller
    How To Write Faster
    H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
    Huffington Post
    Ilibrarian
    Independently Animated: Bill Plympton
    In-tank Cleaners
    Itunes
    Jack Ryan
    James Joyce
    James Patterson
    Janet Evanovich
    Jane Wallace-knight
    J.D. Robb
    Jebediah Buzzard
    Jerome
    Jessie Harrell
    Jim Patterson
    Joe Konrath
    Joel Kinnaman
    John Brunner
    John Carter Of Mars
    John Dies At The End
    John D. MacDonald
    Jonathan Pinnock
    Jo Ramsey
    Julie Kaewert
    Jurassic Park
    Kakamega North District
    Kate Hawkins
    Katy Mattress
    Kdp Select
    Ken Follett
    Kenya
    Kettle Corn Recipe
    Kevin Yarbrough
    Kindle
    Kindle Daily Deal
    Kingdom Hospital
    Kit Foster
    Kiva.org
    Kobo
    Krispy Kreme
    Kristine Kathryn Rusch
    Las Vegas
    Lawrence Block
    LC Kane
    Leanne Salter
    Led Lighting
    Lee Goldberg
    Legends Of Tomorrow
    L. Frank Baum
    Liam Neeson
    Lou Ferrigno
    Louis Armstrong
    Luke Forney
    Luke Reviews
    Luxor
    Magic Promotion Genie
    Malice
    Mangos Mexican Cafe
    Manybooks
    Marian Keyes
    Mars Needs Writers
    Martin Salvador
    Mary Shelley
    Matilda The Musical
    Maybe You Should Write A Book
    M.C. Beaton
    Media Bistro
    Meira Pentermann
    Merri Hiatt
    Method Coffee
    Michael Agger
    Michele Lee
    Mike Mignola
    Moby Dick
    Modern Library
    Mojo Jojo
    Mongolia
    Monk
    Morgan Kearns
    Mother Teresa
    Mrs. Darcy Versus The Aliens
    Murder She Wrote
    Myfreeindie
    Nach Der Katastrophe
    Name Withheld
    Neil Gaiman
    Netflix Daredevil
    New Arrival
    Newman's Own Old Fashioned Lemonade
    New World Fairy Tales
    Niceville
    Nick Hornby
    Nipple Piercing
    Non-Stop
    Norman Spinrad
    Nudiustertian
    Nwf Daily News
    Omidyar Network
    One Bride For Seven Brothers
    One Republic
    On The Writing Of Speculative Fiction
    Open Your Legs
    Other People
    Out Of Print
    Ozma Of Oz
    Paolo Di Giovanni Fei
    Paste Magazine
    Paul Cosca
    Peanut
    Pee Funnel
    Peeps
    Penelope Trunk
    Penguin Books
    Pen Name
    Penn And Teller
    Penn & Teller
    Pest Control
    Peter Cannon
    Phucket List
    P.I.
    Picton Bay South Lisand Pinot Noir
    Pillar Box Red
    Pillsbury Bake-Off
    Pillsbury Wine Company
    Pinyourbook.clom
    Portuguese
    Powdered Milk
    Private Lessons
    Project Gutenberg
    Proxima Books
    Pseudonym
    Psych
    Psychic
    Public Library
    Publishamerica
    Purse
    Quick Rise And Shine Breakfasts
    Rachel Ruiz
    Ralph Daigh
    Rasputina
    Reklamproduktion
    Relentless
    Replica
    Rio
    Ripper Street
    Romance Novel
    Romance Writer
    Ron Goulart
    Ron Perlman
    Rss Feed
    Rune Reading
    Sable Grey
    Salem's Lot
    Scream For Jeeves
    Self-publishing
    Sensualreads.com
    Sequels
    Sexy People
    Shortlist
    Shutterstock
    Sift Reviews
    Six Women Of Salem
    Skottie Young
    Slate Magazine
    Slow Burn
    Snopes.com
    Something Evil
    Something Wicked
    Sometimes You Catch The Shark
    Spanish
    Sparkle271
    Spellbound By Books
    Spodomancy
    Stephen King
    Stephen King's Revival
    Steve Haynes
    Steve King
    Storage 24
    Superblog
    Superfriends
    Supermoon
    Susan Ee
    Taco Barn
    Taiko Pumps
    Take Me To Your Leader
    Tarot Reading
    Tattoo
    Tavush
    Team Imon
    Team Inom
    Tears For Fears
    Thanks For The Ether
    The Atheist's Daughter
    The Black Bridge
    The Death Of A Policeman
    The Death Zone
    The Faust And The Furious
    The Fifth Brother
    The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany
    The Guild
    The Hobbit Movies
    The Holy Trinity
    The Key To Rebecca
    The Land Of Painted Caves
    The Lego Movie
    The List Cafe
    The Lovecraft Chronicles
    The Magicians
    The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
    Theodor Seuss Geisel
    The Old Man And The Sea
    The Powerpuff Girls
    The Shining
    The Slut In The Hut
    The Sphinx Project
    The Stand
    The Summer We All Ran Away
    The Ten Word Game
    The World Swappers
    Thighs Wide Apart
    Tim Minchin
    Tom Clancy
    Tom Cruise
    Torchwood
    Train Diorama
    T.v. Show
    Twilight
    Ulysses
    Unicorns
    Vj Chambers
    Walt Disney
    WeatherBug
    Werewolf Sex
    Wicked Games
    Woody Allen
    Worst Self-marketing
    Writing A Successful Romance
    Writing Careers
    Xtranormal
    Yay!
    Young Adult
    Your Stripper Name
    Zarrowski
    Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance
    Zombeavers

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.