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I'm updating weekly-ish and whenever something exciting happens, so please come back often, browse the archived information,
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Learn more about my books at ShoshannaEvers.com

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Twitter 101 for Authors

Hello Fellow Writers!

Let's talk Twitter. I'm on Twitter (@ShoshannaEvers), and if you follow me I'll follow you back.

This is an excerpt about Twitter from my #1 Amazon Kindle Bestseller in Authorship book, How to Write Hot Sex: Tips From Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors. There are 12 essays from best-selling and multi-published authors in this book, and this excerpt comes from my essay "Getting Published".

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Oh wait, you say you’ve never heard any of these terms bandied about because you’re not in any publishing circles? Let’s get you connected really quickly then. Join Twitter.

Don’t tell me you don’t “get” Twitter. Simply put, if you are an author or are aspiring to be one, you are shooting yourself in the foot by avoiding Twitter. You don’t need to have a fancy phone or be able to text (myths that kept me off Twitter for years).

Just go online to www.Twitter.com and use your pen name as your Twitter handle. That way you’re building name recognition every time you Tweet. I like to use TweetDeck, a free software that makes Twitter really easy to use.

You can set up searches for hashtags, which are topics. On TweetDeck, I create a separate column for each of my favorite hashtags: #amwriting #amediting #amreading #askeditor #askagent #writechat and #pubwrite.

Just like that, you’ve found other writers and authors and publishing peeps online to connect with.
One thing I’ve heard over and over again is “I tried Twitter, but I have nothing interesting to say.” No! You’ve got it all wrong. Twitter isn’t about shouting into the Universe, it’s about listening.

Follow anyone you like. Follow Publisher’s Weekly. Follow all the big literary agents. Follow your favorite authors—and tell them they’re your favorite! We love that. Really really truly.
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Read the intro to How to Write Hot Sex here.

How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors is available now for only $4.99 from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble.com. 

Monday, September 19, 2011

Series or Single-title?

Hello Fellow Writers!

Today we have contemporary romance author Heather Thurmeier (who just happens to be my real-life critique partner and BFF) guest-blogging. Her first book, Love and Lattes, is available now, with her second book, Love on Landing, coming soon!



Series books or single-title books? 
by Heather Thurmeier

I love a good series. In fact, if I were choosing between two books and one was the first of a series and the other wasn’t, I’d buy the one that was part of the series. It’s an easy choice for me.

So often when I read a book I totally fall in love with the characters, the world, the setting—all of it. And I want more of it as soon as I read the last page. That’s why I’ll always choose a series over a single-title. I love knowing that the option of reading more will be there if I want it.

When I contracted LOVE AND LATTES to Silver Publishing, I never dreamed it would be the start of a series. But it is. And I’m thrilled! I had so much fun writing and editing that novella and I totally fell in love with the characters living in the elite community of Meadow Ridge—a place that lives only in my head. Suddenly I realized this community could be the home for more that just Chase and Julia. Anyone I dreamed up could live there and because it’s a wealthy community, anything could happen.

So I immediately got to work on a sequel. Now that LOVE ON LANDING has been contracted, my brain is already potting who the next characters from Meadow Ridge will be for the next novella. I love it!

So do you like books that are part of a series? Are you more likely to buy a book if you know the characters or the world will carry over to another book or many books?

Happy Reading!

Heather Thurmeier
~Heart, humor and a happily ever after.


Blurb for LOVE AND LATTES by Heather Thurmeier

Chase Bloom wants the one thing his wealth can't buy--a woman who loves him for who he really is and not just his money. Not only is Julia Walker beautiful, funny, and so incredibly sexy, she's also the first girl who doesn't seem to know who Chase is. Finally, after two years of playing the field Chase gets a chance to date a girl who's interested in him, not his status. As Julia waits at the bar in one of the local clubs, she wonders how much more cleavage she'll have to show to be granted a drink by a bartender with blinders on. Just when she thinks she's bound to die of thirst, the man of her dreams steps up to the bar and into her heart with a frosty Cosmo. Their casual encounter at the bar quickly escalates into an intimate encounter in the bedroom.

When Julia runs into Chase on her first day of work she's excited to finally see him again—until she learns he's her new boss. Now Julia must stop fantasizing about him even though her mind is constantly remembering his hands on her body, his lips on her eager flesh. But her fantasies fizzle when both Julia's first customer and her new manager threaten her to stay away from the boss. Chase is a player and Julia is his new toy. Should Julia heed the threats about Chase or is a chance to fall in love worth the risk?

LOVE AND LATTES is available now!

http://heatherthurmeier.com
heatherthurmeier@gmail.com
Facebook: Heather Thurmeier, author
Twitter: @hthurmeier

Friday, September 16, 2011

How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors

Hello Fellow Writers!

I'm thrilled to announce my first ever  non-fiction writing reference book is available now on Amazon and Smashwords, and B&N. I put the book up last night, and this morning discovered that it's already a bestseller!! How to Write Hot Sex is #6 in the Amazon Authorship category!

This is the introduction to HOW TO WRITE HOT SEX!

How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors features everything you need to know about adding sizzling sexual tension, scorching sex scenes, and emotional impact to your romance writing in twelve info-packed essays from bestselling and multi-published authors so you can get published and get paid.

Whether you’re writing sensual, steamy, or full-on explicit sex scenes, writers can learn from the authors who write and sell sexy books for a living. Do you want to write erotica? Or an erotic romance? Perhaps you just want to add some hot sexual tension to your romance novel.

You’ve come to the right place.

Here you’ll find essays on the art of writing smokin’ hot vanilla sex, gay sex, BDSM, kink, and ménage, as well as information on how to find paying markets and publishers for your books and short stories.
How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors gives you all the information you need to write sex well and get published! The authors are published with New York publishers, small presses, and e-publishers, including Berkley, Kensington, Ellora’s Cave, Harlequin, Carina Press, Samhain, The Wild Rose Press, Loose Id, Running Press, Flying Pen Press, eXcessiva Publishing, Xcite Books, Circlet Press, loveyoudevine Alterotica, Amber Quill Press, Beyond the Page Publishing, Cleis Press, Resplendence Publishing, Total-E-Bound, as well as becoming Amazon Erotica Bestsellers with successfully self-published books.

So what are these gals gonna teach you? We’ll start this book off with erotica extraordinaire Cara McKenna, who also writes for Harlequin Blaze as Meg Maguire. Her essay Real Ugly will show you how to craft realistic, gritty sex scenes that will raise your prose above “steamy” to “unforgettable.” Then we’ve got the award-winning, prolific Desiree Holt. How prolific? Desiree recently released her one-hundredth book. Now that’s what I call multi-published! She shows you how to use all five senses to bring your romance novel to life in Five Sexy Senses to Rev Up Scenes.

By now you’ve probably heard of the huge market for male/male erotic romance. Interestingly, the readership for these stories is mainly straight women. Christine D’Abo teaches you how to cash in on a hot sub-genre with Boys Will Be Boys: Writing Male/Male Romance. Then L.K. Below dissects sexual tension in The Law of Attraction. With her advice, you’ll learn how to make your character’s attraction to each other come alive off the page as the sparks fly.

Bestselling Kensington author Kate Douglas (Wolf Tales) discusses Writing the Fine Line Between Erotica and Porn. By infusing your stories with emotional impact, you’ll always have a love story you can be proud of—no matter how explicit or graphic your sex scenes get. You’ll learn How to Write Convincing Fetish and Niche Market Sex from one of erotica’s bestselling LGBT authors, Giselle Renarde. Not sure what all those initials stand for? No worries—Giselle will walk you through the writing process she’s perfected over the years in the niche sex erotica market. You won’t believe some of the things that could get you on an editor or reader’s naughty list. At least you won’t be making those mistakes after reading her essay!

Then we get back to the basics with Amazon bestseller Charlotte Stein, who breaks down how to use varying sentence structure and wording to bring your Sexy Sentences from drab to fab. Even the hottest story idea won’t sell if it’s not written well, so heed Charlotte’s advice to take your writing to the next level—the level agents, editors, and readers need to see. You can also learn a lot about writing a good sex scene by studying the way fight scenes are written. That’s right, fight scenes, like sex scenes, can add levels of intensity and emotion to your stories. Award winning multi-published Isabo Kelly shows you how in her essay Fighting Sex.

BDSM erotica is hot—hot to read and hot to sell! Delphine Dryden asks So You Think You Can Kink? After reading her essay on Domination and submission in erotic romance, you’ll be answering hell yeah I can kink! Then we have New York Times bestselling author Jean Johnson, whose essay puts you directly in her classroom as she stands at the podium and plays sexy professor for us in Biology: The Good, The Bad, & the Sex Scene. Learning how our bodies physically and mentally become aroused will give you the tools you need to write hot sex with confidence.

But what if you’ve written a sex scene, and something’s just not right? Enter Fictionwise bestseller Cari Quinn and her Rx for a Sagging Sex Scene. You’ll be able to diagnose an ailing scene and make it exactly the way you need it to be after reading her essay. Lastly, I’ve contributed an essay on Getting Published. A year before this book you’re reading came out, Shoshanna Evers didn’t exist. In the space of one year I’ve had eleven books release with four different publishers (and my sixth Ellora’s Cave book is coming out soon) plus my own self-publishing. I became an Amazon Erotica Bestseller with my self-published work, in fact. In the span of one year I went from not existing to leaving my job as an RN to write full time. If it can happen to me, it can happen for you.

Many authors dream of signing with a literary agency but don’t know where to begin—so I decided to share the query letter that snagged my agent’s attention! Everything you need to know about the process of getting published is here. Whether you’re hoping to land an agent and multi-book contract with a big New York publisher, write for some of the fabulous electronic publishers, or self-publish and take control of your own publishing destiny, I’ll walk you through the steps.

Are you ready? Let’s learn How to Write Hot Sex! WOOT!

 Buy or sample the book now on Amazon, Smashwords and B&N.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Self-publishing sales vs Traditional sales

Today I'm on Flirty Author Bitches, blogging about self-publishing sales versus traditional pub sales. Why are my self-pub books outranking my other books? How did I become an Amazon bestseller with OVERHEATED, one of my self-pub books?

Stop by my post at FAB and find out!
http://flirtyauthorbitches.com/2011/09/15/self-pubbed-books-outranking-my-other-books-why/