Category: My Books

BORROWING ALEX September 30th Release Date!

I’m in the midst of a huge website update in anticipation of the Monday, September 30th release date of the Blue Orchard Books re-issue of BORROWING ALEX, which is currently available for pre-order from Kobo. It’s more than a re-issue, because I’ve not only updated the book to reflect 2013 technology, but I’ve edited it to reflect my current writing style (ie. I’ve tightened it a bit and reworked a lot of sentences), but I’ve also expanded the novel to include two additional scenes. If you were one of the 40 or so people who read BORROWING ALEX while it was with Amber Quill Press, or if you’ve listened to the audiobook based on the first edition, don’t let me stop you from downloading the new ebook when it’s available and trying to figure out where the two new scenes have been added. 🙂

Hint: near the end.

Please sign up for my newsletter to be one of the first to know when BORROWING ALEX is available next week at Amazon, Kobo, NOOK and Apple. I’m waiting for the proof copy of the trade paperback before I approve the print edition to go on sale, so if you want paper it won’t be available until hopefully the first two weeks of October.

Right now, I’ve updated the BORROWING ALEX book page, where you can read the new back cover blurb and an excerpt. If you want to get an even closer look at the ebook cover and also the cover flat for the trade paperback edition, you can do by clicking the cover on the book page or by clicking here. I also created a page for the (so far only) foreign edition of BORROWING ALEX, the Greek edition from Anubis Publications, which, as well as being available on newsstands in Greece and Cyprus in paperback form (yes, that’s Jimmy Thomas on the cover!), is available in the Greek language as an ebook from Apple.

Now back to updating my website! Next up is a revamp of my Books page and swapping book covers in the image rotator on the Home page. That last one always gives me trouble.

Oh, before I forget (I nearly did!), a reader alerted me that my email link wasn’t working for them on my Contact page. I have investigated the issue and had a bunch of people test the email link. It appears to work for about 80% of test subjects, because the link depends on the reader having JavaScript enabled on their computer. If you don’t have it enabled, then you might not see my link at all or you might not be able to get it to load an email to send to me.

I designed my Contact page with the email script as a way to help stop non-humans from accessing my email address and sending me emails for various enlargements, etc. You know what I mean. However, if 20% of browsers can’t email me from my website, that’s no good, either.

I’m looking around now for some good email form code that I can embed on my Contact page, and then readers can fill out the form to send me an email. But, until I get around to finding the code and installing it, for now, if you can’t get the email link to work, either (1) ensure Java is installed on your computer (sorry, don’t know how you’d figure that out); or (2) message me from my Facebook page. Or Direct Message me from Twitter.

I’d rather not force folks who are not on social media to join social media just to email me, so sooner or later I will get the website email annoyance fixed. Aiming for a mid-October delivery date on that promise.

NOW back to updating my website!

 

BORROWING ALEX Cover Reveal!

I’m working hard to meet a September 30th release date for the re-issue of BORROWING ALEX. I just sent my files to my Apple Upload person, but Apple is running around 10-12 days to approve new listings, so I can’t be guaranteed at this point that the new ebook will be on Apple come September 30th, particularly as Apple is also unveiling a new operating system right now. But the ebook will be for sale on Amazon, NOOK, and Kobo on that date! And, as soon as I get the interior print files from my formatter, I will begin the uploading and proofing process for the new trade paperback. It should become available in October.

For now, if you click the link to the BORROWING ALEX book page on my website, you won’t see a nice new cover or even a new blurb or new excerpt! Yes, I need to update my website, but getting the book into queue for publication takes priority. That’s when a blog comes in mighty handy. Here’s the new cover!

 BorrowingAlex_Cover

Want a blurb?

Okey-doke.

~~~

Nikki St. James wants to get married more than anything. But what’s she to do when her fiancĂ© spends his days sucking up to her rich father instead of helping with the simple task of, oh, setting a date? Why…fake a fling with the best man, of course!

Nikki is the first to admit that ambushing Alex Hart and whisking him off to secluded Lake Eden is a tad desperate. But maybe pretending she’s hot for the handsome history professor will kick-start the attention of her future groom. Besides, a sojourn at a lakeside cabin is exactly what uptight Alex needs. Not that Nikki cares what he needs or how sexy he is….

Alex is not on-board with Nikki’s plan. Yeah, he’d love a break from his quest to achieve tenure at warp speed, but getting kidnapped by a crazy blonde hardly tops his to-do list. If what he’s heard is true and Nikki is perfectly happy with her “open” engagement to his former college roommate, why bother getting married?

Quickly, he realizes Nikki isn’t a wild party girl at all. She’s cute, sweet—and faithful. Against his common sense, he’s falling for her. Should he spill the beans about her cheating fiancé? Or will he ruin his own chance for a happy ending?

~~~

Whatcha think?

Deets:

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Length: 50,000 words

Edition: Second edition. Updated and Revised Author’s Cut. Includes two additional scenes! That’s right, more of Nikki and Alex to love!

Current State of Mind of Author: Befuddled

Head Over Heels a Bargain Book at Canadian Amazon!

I was just surfing around the other day and discovered that Amazon Canada has discounted the trade paperback edition of HEAD OVER HEELS to less than $4.50! For a trade paperback!

I have no idea how long the discount has been occurring, how long it will continue, or why Amazon Canada decided to earmark HEAD OVER HEELS a Bargain Book in the first place. Kinda cool that they did, though!

The price changes daily, depending on the U.S. exchange rate, because the trade paperbacks are published in the U.S. and shipped to Amazon Canada a few copies at a time for order fulfillment. Today, the price sits at $4.39. That’s a savings of 47% over the regular retail price, nearly 4 bucks!

Yep, if you’re Canadian, you can order my book and even get free shipping if you have enough other books in your order, then still have enough left over from your savings on HEAD OVER HEELS to drive down to Timmie’s and grab some yummy doughnut holes.

Update on BORROWING ALEX Re-Issue

We are coming along!

I finished the updates (to 2013 attitudes and technology) and revisions—as a result of changes in my writing style over the years—to BORROWING ALEX, including the addition of a couple of new scenes, a few days ago. (Gosh, that sentence is full of parentheticals!) Since then, while waiting for a friend to have time to critique the new scenes, which basically amounts to a new ending, I have been scouring photo sites brainstorming new cover ideas. To say that I was not a fan of the original cover for BORROWING ALEX (which can now only be found on used trade paperbacks, if there are any in existence) is putting it mildly. The original cover really had to grow on me. This time around, I want the cover to truly reflect the story, not look like a romantic suspense novel with a pink background to chick-lit it up a bit. BORROWING ALEX is a romantic comedy, and the cover should reflect that while still getting the romance across.

Narrowing down cover concepts is a tough job! But I hope to get the questionnaire filled out for my cover designer next week. She’ll also need the new back cover blurb, so I have to work on that, too. And, once I have the new scenes back from my critique partner, then begins the arduous proofreading process. No matter who you hire to proofread your books, or even if you work with a publisher and the proofreading occurs on their end, you’re usually given the opportunity to approve the proofs, and this is a step that should not be missed. It’s awfully tempting to just “accept all” changes in a proofing document without checking them. And, not only do you have to check the changes the proofreader has made, it’s advisable to re-read the entire book with a careful eye and ear, because proofreaders can miss stuff. Yes, even if you’re paying them.

I like to proofread on my Kindle (after sending my Word document to my Kindle address and they convert it for me). I have an old Kindle Keyboard model, and it’s handy to make notes using the keyboard within the document, which I can then transfer onto the manuscript on my desktop. Following that step, I painstakingly copy and paste scenes and chapters into audio reader software, then listen to the mechanical narrator read my book while I follow the words on-screen. I learned this from proofing audio books. I always proof my audio books while reading along on-screen, and it’s the best way I know to find errors. But it’s tiring and takes a long time.

I’m looking forward to getting BORROWING ALEX back on Amazon before September, barring scheduling issues with my support people (cover designer and formatter). It’s been a long haul, because 2013 has been a crazy year. But finally there’s some light at the end of the tunnel!

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Categorized as My Books

Head Over Heels on Kindle Books and Tips

KBT_icon_512-300x300HEAD OVER HEELS is featured on Kindle Books and Tips today. Check it out! It’s the fourth listed book in the blog post.

My name is spelled wrong, but I’m working to get that rectified. Yes, I remain on my mission to see Procter spelled with an E!

You can like Kindle Books and Tips on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. If you see the post with my book, please feel free to share (Facebook) or retweet (Twitter).

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Categorized as My Books

Do You Epilogue?

Romance readers, do you like epilogues? Writers, do you like to write them? How do you choose when to write an epilogue?

I have never written an epilogue, however, I just drafted one for the upcoming reissue of BORROWING ALEX, and I think it will wrap up the story nicely. I also added a new scene to the last chapter. I’m not padding for word count. With digital publishing, there’s no reason to (not that I would regardless). The lovely thing about ebooks is that an author can write her story the length it needs to be, or wants to be, I guess. This is especially freeing if you’re, as I am, updating and editing/revising a book that was originally targeted to the category romance market.

While BORROWING ALEX was originally written for a long-defunct Harlequin romantic comedy line, the line shut down just as I was finishing the book. Another category romance romantic comedy line sprung up in its place, but the new line wanted less zany and quirky and more “heartwarming,” as the editor who rejected my manuscript explained. BORROWING ALEX simply did not fit what this major publisher was looking for anymore.

By this time, I had discovered my former ebook and print-on-demand trade paperback publisher, Amber Quill Press. The second edition of HEAD OVER HEELS (which was initially published by a publisher who wasn’t fond of paying authors due royalties), as well as the first edition of BORROWING ALEX, were published by AQP and I had a great editing experience there. However, I (as well as many other ebook authors) was a bit ahead of my time. Kindles and Nooks and iPads didn’t exist and the mass market paperback was still king. That’s my way of saying that the first edition of BORROWING ALEX “enjoyed” a very small audience. I’m looking forward to reaching a larger audience by self-publishing digital and trade paperback editions through my own Blue Orchard Books.

Ebooks have changed the ways readers read, and, to some extent, they have changed how writers write. We are more in tune with readers than ever before. We no longer have to rely on publishing houses to forward letters and emails. Readers can get in touch with us directly. That’s not to say that whatever a reader says goes. Authors are still the creators of our books. However, as the market changes and readers who might not have read a lot of category romance back when that was the only game in town (for a book of about 50,000 words) discover new-to-them authors, I find it interesting to hear what they have to say, in the form of reviews and social media. Often I’ll follow a link from Twitter or Facebook to a reader’s blog and a light bulb will go on.

Recently, I read the term “Insta-Love” on a blog to describe how rapidly romance heroes and heroines fall in love. Readers who might have never read print category romances at all find Insta-Love a little unbelievable. Neither do they necessarily believe that a book needs every single thread tied up neatly in the last scene. However, for those of us schooled in category romance by the biggest category publisher around, well, wrapping up threads was a very strong guideline. And stopping the story as soon as possible after the hero and heroine committed to each other was another. As was getting in a marriage proposal before the book ended. After all, romances are supposed to end on a positive note, and, in category romance, the marriage proposal is the ideal.

That began to change as the readership evolved even within category romance. However, as I said, I initially wrote and published BORROWING ALEX while these tropes were strongly encouraged. Now, going over the book for reissue, even though no one complained (to me, anyway, or in the form of reviews) that my characters were guilty of getting engaged too quickly, I can see that, all right, maybe, in some books, they can slow things down a bit.

And that’s what I’m doing with BORROWING ALEX. The story takes place in the span of five days, and, yes, the H/h do experience Insta-Love. But does that mean they need to experience Insta-Engagement?

I’m not saying where the engagement now occurs in BORROWING ALEX, although some of you might guess (and, no, I couldn’t bring myself to eliminate the engagement entirely and make Alex a Mr. Right Now, because that’s just not who he is). But once the light bulb blinked, “Hey, Cindy, you are allowed to write additional scenes if they forward the story,” and, “Hey, Dimbulb, guess what? An ebook can be longer than 45,000 words computer count and the editor won’t strangle you,” well, it’s opened up a whole new world for me as a writer. To continue to learn and grow and develop as a writer… That’s a good thing and something each of us should continually strive for.

P.S. If you want to “read” the original edition of BORROWING ALEX, it is and will continue to be available as an audio book.

P.P.S. If you want to be among the first to know when the second edition of BORROWING ALEX releases from Blue Orchard Books, sign up for my Newsletter.