Fall In Love With A Cowboy Collection

Ok, I’ve listened. Lately several of my fans have contacted me regarding putting these three stand alone books together. So here it is in one neat little download. All three are Cowboy Romances and now you can get three cowboys wrapped into one for only $8.99. It’s available on Amazon ony for the moment. I will be expanding it’s reach when I see how it’s received.

Hope everyone is having an awesome Sunday. As for me today is our Fall Festival at Church. I’m excited and ready for the challenge. We’ve got food, games, inflatables, prizes, and lots of worshipping. So if you are anywhere near Milner, GA come by Friendship Church and check it out. I’d love to see you there.

It’s such a beautiful day in Georgia so get out and enjoy a festival or just a walk outside today. Get some fresh air.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Back to School Book Sale

Good Friday morning. It’s another rainy, dreary morning here in Georgia. Makes me want to go back to bed with a good book and another cup of coffee or at least Earl Grey tea. But alas, work beckons me to the office. It’s Friday and payroll is due out for several clients so…

I’ve decided to do a Back to School book sale for the rest of August. It’s already up on Amazon and soon to be on allromanceebooks.com and Smashwords.com which will put it on Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, Apple and so on. Am I committing earnings suicide, well maybe, but it’s a hard month finance wide for lots of people. What with school supplies, school clothes, dorm supplies, and all the other school related purchases. So maybe this will help and give someone out there a chance to sit back and read a minute or two.

As for everything else going on, well let’s just say, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I’m trying to finish up my newsletter for submission next week to my subscribers. It’s not too late to subscribe. All you need to do is message me here or through my email.

The other big story is the upcoming blog tour with my friend from across the pond, Rosie Amber. We’ve joined forces to do a blog tour from both sides of the Atlantic. It’s called Romancing September Across the World Blog Tour. We still have a couple of openings but they’re going fast. IF you write romance or put in romance elements in your writing join us for this exciting tour. We’ve already got some great response. Just send me a message and I’ll send you the info. Also put including link below.

Hope everyone has a good Friday. It’s almost the weekend!

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

The Last Night By: Heather Kirchhoff

Check out this new book by a talented young lady I met on Facebook. Here is a little about the book and the author. Go by check out her pages.

Summary:
After Sarah Hill’s boyfriend dies, everything changes. Caught up in her grief and desire to see him again, Sarah is challenged in moving on. She’s sucked back into the world Sarah was in before they started dating-being invisible, bullied. She slowly begins to pull away from everyone, unable to do it anymore. Then one day her reality comes crashing down all around her, pushing Sarah to the edge…

Excerpt:
“More tears crept down my cheeks, leaving them burning. Everything felt wrong. I was wrong. I didn’t belong here. I don’t fit in well enough, I never have. I’m always just that girl. The one who’s so quiet. The one who dated Ryan. The one who is constantly bullied. All because no one sees me for who I truly am. I’m just there. That’s all, nothing more, nothing less. I opened my eyes and stared at the wall, letting my thoughts go insane, letting everything I’ve ever known slip even farther from me. I don’t try to get a grip on anything anymore. I’m done. I’m sick of being bullied, sick of being ignored, misunderstood. I’m tired of being alone. I don’t want that. I don’t want people to see me differently. I don’t want to go through this anymore. I don’t want someone to become my friend and then leave nor do I want to suffer. I can’t live like that. I’m always looking behind me, waiting for someone to expose my secret. I go through the same motions everyday,
burying my thoughts deep down, taking a deep breath, and facing the world. But eventually those thoughts come back to the surface, building my wall once again. I felt it happen, noticed how my hand started to shake as I became overwhelmed.”

Bio:
Heather Kirchhoff lives in a small town in Missouri with her three parents, siblings, an energy-filled dog, and three cats. She became a bookworm back in sixth grade when her teacher suggested the Phantom Stallion series by Terri Farley and instantly fell in love. She loves reading paranormal stories, plus some love ones here and there. Besides reading and writing, Heather likes to go for walks-especially in the woods-hunt, fish, spend time with her animals/family, and listen to music. Writing is her passion-it helps her escape the world for a while, as well as reading-she doesn’t know what she’d do without it. She just loves it. When she isn’t writing, Heather is doing odd jobs, reading, taking walks, or spending time with her animals/family. Heather is currently a junior in high school.

Links where you can find her books and friend her on Facebook:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Night-ebook/dp/B00DQT46YI/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Night-ebook/dp/B00DQT46YI

ttps://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Heather-Kirchhoff/376618135776063

Where do I put my books?

As a writer I’ve learned a lot about marketing and where books sell and don’t. Before I published my first book I had never heard of many of these sites. As just a reader I was aware of Amazon and Barnes & Nobles and places like that. Now that I’ve done research it’s amazing how many are out there.

Here are some of the places I’ve found and how I’ve done with these.

E-book Sites:

1: Amazon: This was the first place I put my books. The first two I actually put in under KDP Select which for me was a mistake. For some KDP Select works, but it just didn’t work for me. It limits where you can put your work. As for Amazon it’s gone pretty well. They make it so easy to put your books on their site and it’s highly recognized.

2: Smashwords.com: This site was not known to me until an author friend suggested it. Now I’ve seen a lot of information on it. It’s been one of my best selling sites. Through their program my books are put on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, Apple, Baker & Taylor and Library Direct. It’s a easy site to put your book on. You get an author page and they make it easy to advertise.

3: Google Play: This site to me wasn’t easy to use. I have several of my books on this site, but they really don’t sale good. It’s really difficult to put your books on it. Others might find this site helpful, but it wasn’t for me.

4: Allromancebooks.com: This site is really cool. It’s as the name says for romance books. It’s an easy site to work with. My sales have been fairly decent on this site. But of course they haven’t been on there but a couple of months.

5: Lightning Source: This is a great site with a lot of professional opportunities. It’s fairly easy to put your books on and a lot of more professional sites look at these books more.

Printed Books

1: CreateSpace: This is a print on demand site. I have all my books on this site for print and the sales go through Amazon. The site is easy to use and if you pay for the Expanded Distribution then it goes to several wholesalers all over the world.

2: Lightning Source: I’ve just signed a contract with them. This is the first professional printer that I’ve signed with. I’m really excited about using them and Barnes & Noble highly recommended this site to me. This is the site most of the big publishing houses pull from.

As I say, this is just a couple of the sites where my books are at and the experiences I’ve had. But of course everyone has different experiences and this is only my opinion.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

What does you character sound like?

You may be saying, what is she babbling about now 🙂 It’s simple really. What voice would you put with your main character if you had the chance? Well, I had to figure that out this week and let me tell you, it was a blast!

What I’m talking about is audio books. An author recently mentioned I ought to try it out, so I did. I went to ACX.com and set up an account. It’s really easy and may I say extremely fun and exasperating too.

After you give them your general information, then the fun starts. You have to put your book information in and an excerpt that you want someone to read for an audition. Yep, you heard me right, an audition. You actually have people sending you auditions on the account. But the fun starts when you have to put in the settings you want. Here are just a few of the things asked.

1. Style of voice: This was a huge list of things like soft, loud, funny, sad, gruff, gravelly, and the list goes on.

2. Gender: Male or female. This part was easy for me.

3. Region of Voice: In the site it has a different name but you get the idea. These included Southern, Northern American, Irish, English, Oriental, Cajun and the list goes on. This one was hard.

After you pick these out you need to tell the producer a little about the way you want it expressed. Then you put why you picked this excerpt.

Then the fun part begins. You can listen to the different styles of voice in the next screen. This is where you can change your choices which is a good thing. This was hilarious. I had to change most of the settings I’d picked. My editor would just looked at me and shake her head laughing.

The strange part is I’ve always known what my character would sound like if she could talk. I listened to a couple of people that had general auditions and found a voice I liked. Then I’ve started receiving auditions. This is going to be hard. I’ve received some that really sound right. A couple sounded like they were in pain, so no. But it was so invigorating to hear my book being spoken by someone other than myself.

So if you want to hear your book, go to ACX.com and try it out. They take royalty percentage or pay per hour. I went with royalty percentage. It’s a no brainer really. They distribute the finished audio book to Amazon, Itunes and a couple of other places.

As always, Good Writing and May God Bless You.

Building a Platform…

For those of you that aren’t authors I’m not talking about a stage. I mentioned to my husband one day that I was trying to build my author platform and he started laughing. He asked me where I was going to put it and what was I going to say when I got up on it. I then explained to him that a author platform is the advertising, blogging, etc. you do to get your book out there. He still thought it was funny. MEN!

When I first started publishing I wasn’t very computer savvy. Of course I knew about accounting programs and such but not the intricacies of publishing, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and all that goes with it. Since then I’ve developed blogs on several sites and now I Tweet everyday. It’s funny how your life changes when you become a published author.

Here are the top ten places I’ve used to build my platform:

1: WordPress: I set up a blog and made it my very own author website. It’s so easy to do once you get into it and take the time to set it up.

2: Twitter: My Twitter account has garnered lots of interest in my writing and it’s attached to my blog so they go hand in hand.

3: LinkedIn: This site allows you to follow many people from various walks of life. My blog is attached to my LinkedIn account, so everything I blog it goes straight to this page.

4: Goodreads: For an author this is a very important aspect of building your platform. Here is where you meet established authors and Indie authors all on the same page. It’s also a good place to gather reviews.

5: Independent Author Network: This site is awesome and it’s so reasonable to set up. I have my own author page and you can put all of your sites on it. Also, other authors will tweet your page for you and they’ll tweet your tweets. It’s really helped my fan base and I really like how it works.

6: Smashwords: This is a place that I have my books for sale. They also put them through to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel and several others. You also get an author page and you can be an affiliate.

7: KindleBoards: This one takes a little more time and reading, but it can get some interest in your books.

8: AllRomanceEbooks.com: This is a great place to sell and advertise your books. It’s all about every genre of romance. It’s easy to set up and put your books on it.

9: CreateSpace: This is where I currently have my books for print. I also have a blog on this site.

10: Amazon: I have all my books on this site. You can set up a author page and link it to your blog and Twitter Account. On Amazon you can be in several countries.

Well, these are just a few of my spots that help me. I have many more, but I didn’t want to bore you too much 🙂

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…

Today’s post is all about my wonderful friend Rosie Amber. We met through my writing and it’s been a wonderful friendship. It’s nice to be friends with fellow authors because you can share ideas, bounce things off them and just talk. I wanted to share her current book with you and I hope you’ll check it out. You will not be sorry. So here’s more about her:

When the police have been seen at school on the second day of term, fighting breaks out amongst parents and gossip about individuals threatens to spiral out of control, can Mrs Hardy, the Headmistress at Moortulk Primary keep control for another school year?
Sophie Grey lands a self-made job where she is in a prime position to hunt out the inside story. Is this an idyllic English village school? Or is it on a par with St. Trinians?

ASIN No: B008HE75PO

In the UK check out;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Talk-of-the-Playground-ebook/dp/B008HE75PO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359794204&sr=1-1#_

In the USA check out;

http://www.amazon.com/Talk-of-the-Playground-ebook/dp/B008HE75PO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359795400&sr=8-1&keywords=talk+of+the+playground

Rosie Amber was brought up in a beautiful Hampshire village; she is married and has two children. She combined her love of writing with a desire to embrace social technology. Talk of the Playground evolved from a spark of an idea from her experiences as a parent in the school playground. Rosie had fun writing the book and hopes it makes you chuckle and brings laughter into your life.

X Rosie

Let’s Talk Print On Demand

What’s been your experience with Print On Demand? It took me a few months to decide whether I wanted to go down this road. I weighed several options and found that CreateSpace offered the best bang for the buck. So I took a deep breath and jumped, hanging on to the edge for a moment then finally with the help of my editor/assistant I let go. (She would say I went kicking and screaming. It wasn’t all that bad. Really it wasn’t ;))

If you’ve never looked into CreateSpace I would suggest giving them a try. They make it so easy to submit your book and cover. But remember you have to have the back and spine completed also. Now that was a different monster in itself. We had to read the instructions about measuring the spine. Yep it’s a fine science and guess what, if you don’t do it right the spine design with wrap around to the front and back. Thank goodness the one it did that on with me actually turned out looking pretty cool.

With CreateSpace you can pay only $25 and go into their expanded distribution program. This sends your books to several wholesale distributors and big book franchises. I at first wondered if this was going to be a good thing, but when I googled one of my books it was amazing how many places my books have shown up. One day I found my books on someones blog that I had no idea who they were. That was so cool. Then it started happening pretty frequently. It’s like you’re paying $25 for advertising.

Also your book goes on Amazon and you can connect it to your author page. When Amazon recognized book stores pick up your print book, Amazon posts it on your book page. Sometimes the other companies post a different price then you input but you still get what you’re supposed to.

As for sales on the CreateSpace page, not many but you as the author can buy them really cheap from CreateSpace. All you pay is the print costs and shipping. At least you have your book in print without paying a huge printing fee. Try it, you might be surprised. Hope this helps you out or gives you a little food for thought.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Not so Shameless Post :)

Well, I haven’t made a shameless advertising post lately. Hey, I’m a author, what can I say. So here goes. Check out the 6 books that I’ve published at the following author pages:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/StephaniePayneHurt

Also available at Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, Apple, Abe Books, and others.

It’s been such a fun experience being a published author. I’ve met so many wonderful people from all over the world. It’s amazing how a book can connect you with others. I didn’t really believe it when I received such a warm welcome to the writing world. I wouldn’t change it for nothing.

If you check out my books please send out a review. Join me on Goodreads, LibraryThing, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for more of the fun. Recently I joined Romance Writers of America which had been something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

If you get a chance, check out the magazine Fleetlife in the UK for a review of “Tender Flames” that was entered by my friend Rosie Amber. It’s located in the January 2013 issue. http://t.co/Z6GosFwq.

So, that’s it. Not too long and painful. Now back to the regularly scheduled programming 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You 🙂

Weighing the options…

Ok, so most of you are writers and have dealt with the issue I’m going to discuss, but those that haven’t here goes. This all started back in May of last year when I decided to publish the manuscripts I’d worked on for many, many years. I thought, hey, why not, their not making money sitting in a box gathering dust and fading ink.

It all started so simple, I published on Amazon and went through the KDP Select program. Don’t know if you’ve tried that, but I was glad when my 3 month sentence was up. Amazon is great, I just didn’t care to have all my eggs in one basket so to speak. I then started publishing other books and gathering information on where I could self publish.

Then I started the fun task of putting my name out there on any and all social media mediums. Boy was that a hoot. Me, country girl, simple accountant on Twitter, LinkedIn, and finally, yes can I say it, the dreaded Facebook page. Funny how publishing a book or six can change your life. 🙂

Well, the calls started coming in about October from different publishing companies. At first I’m thinking yeah, someone noticed me. Then I realized they weren’t in it for me, but for them. Well not all of them, but you get the picture. They were praising my work and saying we need you to publish under our name. Well, being an accountant, my analytical brain kicked it, “What’s the catch?” They usually laugh and say ‘Oh there’s no catch’. Funny how 2 to 3 thousand dollars is no catch to them, but to me that’s a whopper. They usually wanted to charge thousands of dollars to do the same exact thing I’ve been doing for a lot less and most of the times free. Not happening.

I then talked to some smaller publishers that said they would just take a cut of the royalties. Now we’re talking my language. But, who do you go with. I’ve researched the ones that have called me and some of the one’s other authors I know used. It’s a hard decision. Do I give my baby to just anybody? Will they protect it and not change it to where I don’t even recognize my own work? What now?

For me the decision is to put one of my works with a publisher and see how it goes. I don’t know if it will go well or not, but we will see. I will keep you guys updated on the progress and the ups and downs of traditional publishing vs. self publishing. Wish me luck…

As always good writing and May God Bless you…