DC Area Storytellers

Its Too Darn Hot, That's Too Darn Hot - No make that it's Too Darn SlowNothing new to report on journey with regard to Berkley and its process, except that I’ve received notice of the publisher’s author signing at RWA’s conference in Washington, DC in July, plus the publisher’s party for its authors at the RWA conference. Unfortunately, I won’t have a Berkley book to sign this year, but I will next year!! WOOT! Still it will be great to go to the party where I’ll get to meet my editor for the first time.

I did manage to get my characters figured out for Book 2 in my paranormal series. The deadline for the proposal is LOOMING. The heroine is still uncooperative, but she’s coming around. Usually it’s the hero. But then this isn’t going to be an easy book to write as there are two different threads running beneath the romance. I’ve NO idea whether I can actually pull this off. I want to do this because I know it will be a good book if I can successfully intertwine all three threads without leaving readers scratching their heads as they read the book.

Since I’ve been struggling with the character development in prep for writing Book 2 synopsis, I’ve been doing some promo prep when I need to take a break from dealing with characters. I got my Kismet page uploaded with the official blurb and excerpt. Now I’m working on developing the book video. Finding music to go with the video and the right pictures is pretty time-consuming, primarily because it’s more of an “I’ll know it when I see/hear it” type of deal for me. The photos are always easier than the music because I skim photos on iStockPhoto and find what I’m looking for quickly (usually about four hours). But music requires listening to at least a minute of orchestration, sometimes longer for me to figure out if the music will work. Then I need to download the trial copy and throw it into SwishMax to see if it fits with the initial video I’m developing. I’d say this is double the time it takes to find photos. I do have to say I found this incredible photo on iStockPhoto for my courtesan heroine. I had to crop the photo for censor reasons, but it’s a wonderful photo even from the waist up. Sensual and time period appropriate.

The other thing I’ve been doing is scheduling promo for the upcoming Berkley books. So far, I’ve scheduled quite a bit. I’ve got online advertising pretty much squared away and print is scheduled. I know I’ll be doing a bookmark mailing as well as some flyers. I’m not sure what type of co-op advertising I’ll get from Berkley, but I’m waiting until I get the cover before I ask that question. At this point though, my ad budget is pushing its way up the scale. So far, I’m at approximately $1700 per book. I’d like to get all of this paid BEFORE the end of the year so I can reduce my tax bill to zero. Next year is going to be the first time in years that I’m not going to get some type of a refund. THAT will be a definite shock to our systems.

It's Slow