On Writing

  • · ·

    Bigtime lives on …

    21 Comments
    Bigtime Series
    Book #1    		 Bigtime Series
    Book #2    		 Bigtime Series
    Book #3

    Well, I’ve decided to test the waters of e-book publishing. The rights to my Bigtime paranormal romance series have reverted back to me, and I’ve decided to make them available as e-books.

    Why? Well, because every once in a while, I’ll get an e-mail or someone will come up to me at a conference and tell me how much they enjoyed the books. Folks seem to really like the campy, superhero world of Bigtime, New York, and I had a lot of fun writing the series. But the books are out of print now, so this is a way for fans of the series to still enjoy them and for folks who haven’t read the books to hopefully discover them as well.

    And yes, money was a consideration too. You hear all these stories and see all these blog posts about authors making thousands and thousands of dollars releasing their backlists and original works as e-books. So I figured I’d see what all the e-fuss is about. LOL.

    Really, though, I don’t expect to get rich off this. I figure if I can recoup my upfront expenses and maybe make a hundred bucks a month, I’ll be doing good. It would be gas and grocery money if nothing else. We’ll see how it goes.

    Also, please note that the Bigtime books are quite a bit lighter than my Elemental Assassin series. Basically, the Bigtime books are fun, campy, superhero romances. There’s a different heroine in every book, and she gets her happily ever after with her hero at the end of every book.

    THE COVERS AND FORMATTING

    As you can see above and below, I’ve gotten new covers made for the books, and they were designed by the awesome Kimberly Killion of HOT DAMN Designs. I think the covers are bright, colorful, and fun, just like the books are. Plus, they say something about the story — radioactive goo on the Karma Girl cover; a superhero mask on Hot Mama; and the Star Sapphire that everybody is after on the Jinx cover.

    Michael Zapp of ZappTek did the formatting for the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AllRomance Ebooks e-books and was very patient with all the changes I wanted to make. I actually formatted the Smashwords versions of the books myself (with some tips/help from Michael) because that was just a matter of formatting a Microsoft Word document.

    I also have to give a shout-out to my author friend Edie Ramer, who answered a ton of questions for me during this whole process. (FYI, Edie is part of the very cool Magical Musings blog.) Thanks so much, Edie!

    THE PRICE AND WHERE TO GET THE E-BOOKS

    The Bigtime books are available for $2.99 each. I know a lot of authors play around with the prices of their e-books, but I figured I’d try $2.99 to start with and see how that goes. Here are the links to the various sites where the books are available:

    Karma Girl: Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Smashwords; All Romance Ebooks

    Hot Mama: Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Smashwords; All Romance Ebooks

    Jinx: Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Smashwords; All Romance Ebooks

    I figured these four sites would let me hit most of the e-book formats and markets out there.

    Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Bigtime series, here are the descriptions of the books:

    KARMA GIRL — BIGTIME #1

    Investigative reporter Carmen Cole gets the surprise of her life on her wedding day when she discovers her fiance cheating on her with her best friend — and that the two of them are her town’s resident superhero and ubervillain. Shocked and hurt, Carmen decides to devote her life to unmasking every hero and villain who crosses her path.

    A series of successful unmaskings lands Carmen a job at The Expose, one of the biggest newspapers in Bigtime, N.Y., a city that’s full of superheroes and ubervillains. But Carmen’s job also brings her to the attention of the Terrible Triad, Bigtime’s most wanted ubervillain team. The Triad demands that Carmen discover the real identity of Striker, the leader of the Fearless Five superhero team — or else they’ll drop her in a vat of radioactive goo.

    Caught between the evil ubervillains and the very sexy Striker, Carmen struggles to find some way out of this mess, but this is one story that just might be the death of her …

    HOT MAMA — BIGTIME #2

    Fiona Fine is the hottest fashion designer in Bigtime, N.Y. — literally. That’s because she moonlights as Fiera, a superhero with superstrength and volatile, fire-based powers. As Fiera, she’s also a member of the Fearless Five, the city’s most powerful and popular superhero team.

    However, Fiona’s been through a lot lately, including the death of her fiance. But she’s ready to move on, so it seems like good karma when she meets sexy businessman Johnny Bulluci at a friend’s wedding.

    But Fiona doesn’t have a lot of time for love, with two new ubervillains named Siren and Intelligal causing havoc in Bigtime. Fiona doesn’t know exactly what the ubervillains are up to, but if she doesn’t find out, then Fiona’s the one who just might go up in flames this time …

    JINX — BIGTIME #3

    Thanks to her unwanted superpower, fashion designer Bella Bulluci may be the luckiest woman in Bigtime, N.Y. But luck can be good or bad, and it seems like just as many embarrassing things happens to Bella as do positive ones.

    Like when a charity event that Bella plans get crashed by Hangman, a deadly ubervillain who’s after a prize sapphire that’s on display. Hangman almost succeeds in stealing the jewel for his evil ubervillain boss, Prism, but Bella’s luck helps her escape with the sapphire — along with some help from the suave and charming Debonair.

    Debonair’s not an ubervillain, but he’s not really a superhero either. Still, Bella can’t help but fall for him, despite her personal vow to have as little to do with heroes and villains as possible. But with Hangman and Prism still after the sapphire, Bella’s going to need every bit of her luck power just to survive …

    A FEW FINAL WORDS

    At this time, I don’t have any plans to do new print versions of the books — I’m going to see how the e-versions do first. I think print versions would be cool to do someday, but at this point, I just don’t have the time or the money to get into that.

    Like I said, I’m not expecting huge sales, but if there’s enough interest, I might do some new, original, Bigtime e-stories as 99-cent downloads. I also have a fourth Bigtime book written, and I may release that someday as well, if the interest in there. The book needs some work, though, including copy edits, a cover design, etc.

    Right now, I’m pretty busy writing and promoting my Elemental Assassin and Mythos Academy series. Those books/projects have to come first, but the e-book market is definitely something that I’m interested in doing more with. I just have to figure out a way to find the time in between my various projects.

    Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the e-books. If I decide to write more stories/books in the series, I’ll post about it here on the blog. But for now, I  just wanted to let everyone know that Bigtime lives on! 😉

    Note: I’ve made this post sticky so it will be at the top of the blog this week. To read the other new posts this week, just scroll down.

  • ·

    What I learned at RWA …

    4 Comments

    So every time I go to a conference, Wheezley always asks me what I learned after the conference is over. It’s a little ritual with the two of us.

    So here are some of the things I learned at RWA this year, along with a gorgeous shot/reflection of (what I think is) the Chrysler Building by Wheezley (who is a professional photographer with some serious skills):

    1) I am a very small fish in a very large pond: This was my fourth time at nationals, but the sheer size of the conference always amazes me. You get 2,000-plus writers, readers, and industry professionals in a hotel for the better part of a week, and it’s going to be impressive. Before the literacy signing started, I just walked around the ballroom and looked at the names of all the authors who were there. It was really humbling and inspiring at the same time.

    2) Everyone seems interested in digitizing their backlist: I heard a lot of talk about this. Everyone seems to be interested in either digitizing their backlist books or releasing new material as e-books (including yours truly). I plan to do a separate post about this at some point, but I’d say that it was one of the most talked about topics at the conference.I definitely see it as a way for writers to supplement their income and release the books they want to when they want to.

    3) Publishers seem to be catching up with the digital trend: I also heard a lot of folks talking about how they’re writing e-stories, novellas, or some kind of digital extra for their publishers to tie in with their existing series (like the First Frost prequel e-story that I’ve done for my Mythos Academy series). It’ll be interesting to see if the digital extras help drive sales of the regular print and e-books. I’m betting they will. I’ve certainly got my fingers crossed on that in regards to First Frost.

    4) YA and paranormal are still hot: I only got to go to a couple of the YA panels, but they were very well attended, and it seemed like there were a lot of paranormal panels/workshops on the schedule too. So I think these are still the two hottest genres in terms of what folks are reading and what editors are buying.

    5) Missing e-readers: I didn’t see as many folks with e-readers at the conference as I expected to. The last couple of conferences I’ve been to, a lot of folks have had e-readers and asked me to sign their e-reader covers, but that didn’t happen this time. Maybe because the publishers give away so many free paper books at the signings? I don’t know. It just struck me as a little odd. Or maybe everyone just left their e-readers in their rooms while they were out and about at the conference.

    6) It’s all about the books: I picked up several books at the publisher signings — books I’d been wanting to read, authors I’d been wanting to try, even a few titles for my mom. To me, one of the best parts of the conference is the various publisher signings, and judging from all the folks I saw with boxes of books, a lot of people feel the same way.

    7)  It’s all about the writing: Like I said before, I went to a couple of panels, and the editors/agents on them said that they’re looking for a great story above all else — no matter what genre it’s in. They also said that if you’re writing a common character like vampires, werewolves, or dystopian that your submission will really have to wow them to stand out, but that it can be done. Basically, a good book is a good book, and it’s all about the writing.

    MY RANTS

    Okay, so I also have a few rants, the biggest of which was the hotel charging for Wi-Fi and just to ship out books. It seems like the bigger and nicer the hotel is, the more they charge you for every little thing. Next year, I hope the conference is in a hotel that at least offers free Wi-Fi.

    I expected the Big Apple to be pricey, but I was a little shocked at how expensive the food was. I spent about $60 on souvenirs, and I think about four times that on food (and I did not eat at fancy restaurants). Call me crazy, but I don’t think a sandwich, chips, and a drink should be $13.

    I have to say that I also got a little frustrated with people constantly checking their phones. Looking at your phone once or twice during a conversation is cool. Looking at it every five seconds is a little distracting. I know everyone’s on the phone all the time talking, texting, and doing social media, but I go to conferences to meet people face-to-face and interact with them — not watch them check their phones.

    Also, speaking of the publisher signings, it would be nice if they were all scheduled for different times. A lot of authors write for more than one house so it would definitely make things easier on them. Plus, authors are readers too, and we like books as much as everyone else does. I think there were two or maybe three other signings scheduled at the same time as the Pocket signing. I would have liked to have gone to those signings as well to see who was there and say hi to the folks that I know.

    Okay, end of rants.

    So there you have it: some of the things I learned at RWA, for better or worse. Overall, I had a great time, and I’m looking forward to the next time I can go to RWA.

    For those of you who went to RWA, what did you learn? What would you like to see at the conference next year? For those of you who weren’t there, would you ever go to RWA? Why or why not?