Harlequin Limited Enterprises has just launched a new division, Harlequin Horizons. According to their website this new line is their self-publishing division "that offers aspiring romance writers the opportunity to self-publish their work."

So, with a fee beginning at $600 now any writer can become a published author. But that's not it Harlequin Horizons is also offering other services to help make your book the next best seller or the next Twilight!

My favorite? The Hollywood Book Trailer.

For only $19,999, your vision can become a "live-action Hollywood-produced book trailer". Even better? The finished product will be reviewed by an agent and if it meets the muster they will present it to a movie studio. Gee golly whiz too bad Neiman Marcus has already published their 2009 Christmas Book because this ranks right up there with there with their past doozies such as the...

GRAND OLE OPRY EXPERIENCE from the 2004 Christmas Catalog where for only
$25,000 the lucky buyer can join country music royalty on stage during a live Opry broadcast. Along with sitting in with the band live on the show, the exclusive package includes a music lesson with an Opry band member, a pre-show gourmet dinner for two in your dressing room, a gig co-hosting the Opry warm-up show live on 650 AM WSM and luxury accommodations for two at the Gaylord Opryland Resort.

AND Manuel, the legendary creator of cowboy couture for Elvis and countless other music legends, will design and create matching his and hers jackets for the purchaser. For another priceless memento, an array of Opry performers will autograph a Takamine acoustic guitar.

Or this years, HALL ARTISAN WINE AND ART EXPERIENCE ($20,000) - Learn organic, artisan winemaking firsthand from Kathryn and Craig Hall, tour the Rutherford Estate, enjoy tastings of exclusive private vintages -- and have the singular chance to create your own personal vintage in a private blending session led by HALL Winemaker Steve Leveque.
 

 

And in 2008, the true equestrian for $10 million could have purchased 3 Chimneys Farm in Midway KY, complete with a stable of up to 15 race horses. Home to Kentucky Derby Winner Big Brown, Smarty Jones, and Triple Crown Winner Seattle Slew, 3 Chimney's Farm purchase also included experienced trainers (with your guidance of course), boarding, the opportunity to enter your new stock into various horse races, design the jockey silks for your “stable”, attendance at all races, and all of the winnings & trophies that are won.
 

Personally, you can keep all of the above and even the Hollywood Book Trailer and just send me the customized cupcake car.
 

Most of you all already know YouTube is a video sharing site where users can watch everything from personal video blogs, movie clips, music videos and even book trailers. If you've tinkered with the idea of using YouTube or creating a book trailer you should consider it. Its the most used search engine behind Google and serves more than a billion views a day.

(Buffy v. Edward)

Other than 'manipulating' YouTube's alogorithm, here's a few other things you can do to improve your ROI (rate of investment) in this uber popular video sharing service:

Produce your own YouTube channel. Its the only way to obtain friends and subscribers who'll sign up to be notified whenver you post;

Think of making your book trailer a "How- To- Video". For example, if you've written a paranomal and your hero is a werewolf. How about telling the viewer how to date one? And leave the poetic words for the description;

Put your book trailers on your website. Go even further by putting them a separate page and use a description with your keywords. Search engines eat up any and all kinds of content;

Don't be shy tell people about your video. Post it on other websites/blogs also Yahoo Groups, FaceBook, when you do an interviews or chat;

Create a spin-off a la Scary movie (view the Buffy video above). Think about it if you've written a book where your heroine fights zombies why not piggyback on the success of the blockbuster hit "Zombieland" with a video entitled "In a Land of Flesh Eating Zombies..."

Well, I hope this helps! Happy YouTubing! Stay tuned for "Make More than Just Friends on Facebook"

While tinkering with my ping.fm account, I came across one of the coolest applications I've seen in like 3 days which aims to help beleagured daters from one of the most common dating binds...a bad date! Escape My Date, in their tag line, asks:   

In a sticky social situation?

and we'll ask your friends to help you out.

All you have to do is give the program your phone number, email and authorization to access your Twitter account and voila la!  They'll tweet all of your friends to help you out of the bind.  I thought this was sort of cute, but what happens if the guy you're out with is on your Twitter account?

What a great plot twist for a book....

 

Despite its increased popularity in Latin/South America, Myspace is no longer the no.1 social networking site in the United States having just lost their place at the top of the rankings in the past ten months to Facebook. Their market share has shrunk so dramatically they even laid off 30% of its workforce in June.

So should you create your own space on Myspace?

 

(a hunky comment from author Paige Tyler)

I had a Myspace profile for 2 years now despite my love/hate relationship with social networking and the site's weakening visitor numbers. My reason for my Myspace loyalty? Well, it's easier to add or find friends on Myspace compared to Facebook because Facebookers are much more selective when it comes to accepting a friendship connection or joining a fan page.

Hmm...I wonder if its because people don't want to junk up their pristine profile page with something or someone they personally don't know or don't really like? Or maybe it's because they don't want to expend the energy trying to keep up with people they don't talk to on a regular basis. I will admit the latter is one of the main reasons I only have 27 friends on my personal FB page. And all of them are either family or really, really close friends who I speak to on a daily basis. None of them are former high school or college classmates or people from my job or within the writing industry.

Which brings me to the crux of social networking. Like any other profile/website, if you aren't actively using it, it's nothing but a static web page. And everyone hates going onto a person's profile they haven't logged into since 2005. In a nutshell, the more you use Myspace the more SEO value you’ll receive from it. So how can you use your Mspace page to promote myself as an author or promote my books?

*Seek out groups and communities that are interesting in reading or books and join them.

*Post your book trailer in the Myspace Video section which will further your reach

*Friend people who share an interest in your product or service. Just don't go out willy nilly and just add anyone. Add people who are readers and not just someone who wants to become "Myspace popular"

*Post, post, post. Keep your profile page current with news about upcoming releases, special promotions with your publishers,

*Direct people to your other networking sites, publishers, and official website.

*Use your blog to give potential readers a taste of your writing.

*Read other people's Myspace blog's and leave a comment. You never know who'll come and visit and be curious enough to visit your profile

*Post comments on other's Myspace profiles. I can't tell you how many people have requested my friendship after doing this.

51% are male
64% don't have a college degree
58% are 18-34
61% are Caucasian and 24% are African American
44% Have incomes of 30K-60K

As some of you already know, I'm using my author blog to share what I've learned from my daily forays into the ever changing world of social networking to help my fellow writers/authors brand and market themselves on the World Wide Web.
 



My first SEO themed post dived into the world of Twitter, a micro-blogging service that has swept the Internet and brought celebrities as close as our mobile phones. Today, as stated at the end of my first post, I'm going to go a little deeper into how to use and optimize Twitter to your benefit.

One of Twitters most popular features is the hashtag, which is identified with a hash symbol ("#"). Twitter hash tags (i.e., #trick or #treat) help spread information on Twitter while also helping to organize it in a list on your HOME page called Trending Topics.
 
To understand what a Trending Topic is think of it as the ever popular "fan wave" during a football game. If you click on a word on the Trending Topics list it will take you to all the tweets where twitters are tweeting about the various topics.

How is this beneficial to a writer?

Well if you decide to contribute to the Trending Topic you will increase your exposure. Or even better if you start a Trending Topic such as #read or #writing or #kokobrown then you can weed out all the potential readers out there in Twitter land and follow them or become a twitterhousehold name!

Another great way to use Twitter is to update your Facebook/Myspace/Website/Blog pages. As writers we don't want to spend all day with SEO so why not kill many birds with one stone?

I've noticed many of you already do this, but for those out there just starting out you can have Twitter automatically update your status on all of your social networking sites whenever you post a tweet. Even better it's free! Here's a lists of applications that will automatically post your twitter updates:

If you use more social networking services like Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster, etc., then consider using Ping.fm to update your status. When you post a message on Ping.fm, it automatically posts that message across ALL of your social networking sites.
Last, but not least, I mentioned twitter.search.com in my last post, but I'm sure you all want something less hands on right? Well, let me introduce you to Tweet Alarm one of the newest application programs on the block that will help simplify your Twitter experience.

Much like Google Alerts, Tweet Alarm searches then pulls information from Twitter much in the same way as Google Alerts and sends them to your email account. And you can set up the alerts to only look for certain search terms and how often you want them delivered. From as often as twice a day or once a week.

Bonus Tip: I just received a great tip from one of the senior editors at Loose-Id, Ms. Georgia Woods ! She uses Hootsuite to set up Tweets in advance. According to Georgia, you can set up a day’s tweets, or a week’s tweets, all in advance, and keep your name out there, and work when it’s convenient for you. I hope this post helps your marketing/branding efforts with Twitter. And don't forget if you have any other ways to optimize a twitter profile, don't forget to share in comments:) P.S. Thanks to OmniLit and AllRomance for tweeting about my "Tricks-O-Tweeting" post!

Besides being an author, I also work 9-5 as a New Media specialist for a medium size destination and attend several conferences throughout the year geared towards website marketing.

So, I thought it would be great to share what I've learned in the travel/tourism industry regarding the world wide web with those who don't have enough time to research the many tricks people use on the cyber highway.

For the next couple of posts, I'm going to devote a few of my blog posts, to web 2.0 for writers/ authors. Today's blog, as you can guess by the big, scary pumpkin, will be about Twitter.

I'm sure most of you have heard of this 140 character phenomenon which pitted Ashton Kutcher against media giant CNN for bragging rights on who could reach 1 million followers first or the Anti-P Diddy campaign that wanted to keep him from the same magic number. If not, don't sweat it. Twitter is simple, FREE and at times highly contagious micro-blogging service that receives more than 55 million monthly visitors and is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites on the entire web.

In layman's terms, Twitter is a treasure trove of potential readers! Signing up on Twitter is easy and takes less than five minutes. And for less than a minute a day, but sometimes more, you can build a loyal following. BUT that's only if you know what you're doing.

So, what do you do when you get on? Well...you tweet. I know it sounds very easy, but its what, how often and to whom you tweet, which will either sink or float your boat.

What do you tweet? Tweets are meant to be short and to the point. You have only 140 characters so don't waste your time or your followers with vague generalities only you understand or purely throw away messages such as, I'm heading to the kitchen to make myself a PBJ.

Instead spice up this tweet with something like, Didn't plan on it but my heroine has a kid who likes PBJ sandwiches, heading 2 the kitchen for research. The key is to be engaging and entertaining.

I hear the groans out there. You don' t want to waste your brain cells on kitschy things to say especially on a free social networking site that doesn't send you monthly royalties. But think about it. As a writer your career revolves around what you write.

What better way to showcase your voice or your sparkling sense of humor in order to attract potential readers who've never heard of you?

How often do I need to tweet? Well there isn't a maximum, but in my opinion there is definitely a minimum. If you don't have the time to tweet at least once a day or more, I wouldn't bother getting on Twitter. There's nothing worse than to visit someone's website and they haven't bothered to write anything for a month. Bye-bye, I'm gone.

To Whom do I need to tweet? The easiest followers to gather on Twitter are of course friends, other authors reviewers and book publishers. But eventually you'll come up against a brick wall since we all have our limits on whom we actually know. So that's when we need to spread our wings and start finding people outside our circle to befriend.

What's that you say, quality over quanity?  There's nothing worse than to follow someone who doesn't like to read. You should target your audience by using twitter.search.com.  This is an advanced search option that allows you to seek and follow people with an interest in what you write about. Type in "erotica" within a 100 mile range and tweets with the word erotica will pop up.

I typed in the phrase vampires books within a 1000 mile range and dozens of pages popped up with people talking about books with vampires in them. And all I had to do was click their follow button and cross my fingers that they will follow me back which is a pretty good chance since research shows 60% of all people on Twitter follow those who follow them. But if they don't right away, you can simply send them a message of hello:)

Are there any other ways to build followers? Here's a few of tweet-o-tricks that have helped a few people.

Now that you have the tricks...now go tweet!

Do you have any tricks for tweeting? If so, I would like to hear about them!

Well, I finally made a plane on time. Must have been because I was so excited about Ellora Cave's Romanticon Reader's Convention this weekend in Akron, Ohio:) And I am. I've been up all night packing, unpacking, and making an afro wig for tonight's psychadelic 60s party tonight, stuffing bags with cds, vampire fangs, and candy poker chips. If you're one of my readers you know exactly which book I'm promoting:)

Anyway, I think this weekend is going to jam packed and I fear I won't be able to get in any sightseeing like I usually do. The powers that be at EC have us pretty much busy the entire weekend. The next three days will be filled workshops (I'm sitting on the Multicultural/Interracial panel on Sunday), on-one meet and greets with readers, an appreciation dinner, pictures with the cover models, a book fair, and even a send off bingo party.

AND I CAN'T WAIT!

The authors at EC are great and they know how to party! I think it's because we're so shunted up the rest of the time writing and not socializing that reader conventions allow us to be around people who understand the agony we put ourselves through to find the perfect word to hook the reader. Also, it's great to talk with readers who appreciate your work:)

Well if you're reading this and you'll be at Romanticon come by and say hello or check out the "Researching and Writing Multicultural/Interracial Romance" I'm on the panel with Eve Vaughn, Lena Matthews, and Liz Andrews. I'll save some chocolate poker chips for you. If you're not attending, check my official blog. I'm going to be blogging all weekend and uploading pictures on there.

Ya'll have a great weekend! 

I received my first issue of Romantic Times (September 09) this afternoon and while flipping through the reviews, I came across a review for my April Red Sage release, The Merry Widow. Although Red Sage, places a monthly ad, I had no idea I was up for a review and I didn't receive an email from the magazine or my publisher letting me know.

So as you can guess, I wasn't hoping for much since this is my first RT review. The Merry Widow received...4 stars. I. am. so. tickled. pink! Mainly because this little novella hasn't earned me much as far as my normal sales, but the reviews have been great. And, Romantic Times doesn't giveaway reviews you have to earn them.  Then lastly, the story only took 10 days to write and edit but it's helping me garner a name in the world of romance:)

Well without further ado, here's a snippet of the review by Donna M. Brown: This entertaining Victorian novella is laced with humor and hot sex. The characters in this May-December romance are witty and charming, and you'll cheer for Reggie in his relentless pursuit of Phillipa.

The Merry Widow, my older woman/younger man Victorian romance just received a 5 star review from Just Erotic Romance Rewiew...and I'm tickled pink even though I've recently discovered readers final decision to buy a book isn't necessarily due to a good or bad book. It still feels great, since I haven't been able to recieve anything higher than a 4 from them.

Title: The Merry Widow

Publisher: eRed Sage Publishing

Publisher URL: http://www.eredsage.com/

Reviewer: Heather Nestorick

Rating: 5 Stars

Heat level: O

Phillipa is lonely and decides to risk it all and hire a “gentleman” friend. After a brief meeting with the town Madam, Phillipa waits for her new friend to arrive. Reggie arrives at Phillipa’s home to talk business but was instead escorted to her bedroom. After a brief encounter both realize they want more but are the costs too high; Reggie is her competition and Phillipa is 10 years his senior. Can Phillipa go against the norm and her own fears to find love again?

The Merry Widow was enjoyable and fun to read. Phillipa was a wonderful character; she had accepted her husband’s death and was determined to move on with her life. She takes control and satisfies her desires....

To read more visit: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/QCZtSvU0Aw6pzmosSLloiAy8IRq1Zsk9VE8jJdp6RcXsDVx5tGL3W_hFQcmxzNSZ_6y4GbhlxzYlX-jVXRxniWLRj-pAmPOAIcE/JERR%20Newsletter%20155%20-%2007-26-2009.htm

What's hotter than a romance cover model? A romance cover model with the brains to control their own image!

Yesterday, I received an email from one of my Myspace friends Jimmy Thomas, International cover model extraordinaire. Of course, I opened it right away because I was half expecting words of unrequited love and his desire to see us tying the know in an intimate ceremony in a small church in the Napa Valley.
 

But alas...le sigh...no such thing happened. Instead, Jimmy was informing the world (not just me unfortunately) that he was launching another venture. Like he needs another one considering he once managed over 50 models (not at the same time...I hope), currently works as a romance cover model, is a certified physical trainer, freelances as an architectural designer for several companies in the Los Angeles area, and also designs websites including his own jimmythomas.com. Jeez Louise, I have to take a deep breath after writing all of that.

(Jimmy Thomas and Friend at work)

Well, this über entrepreneur's newest venture is the launch of his own stock photo website (i.e. i-stock) called romancenovelcovers.com, which contains images of him with several female co-stars in a multitude of settings, situations, and poses. And all the images, and there are hundreds of them, are tailored made to the romance industry and it's various genres. Can we say NO MORE PHOTOSHOPPING for me mom!?

Even better, once an image is purchased it's never sold again! So, you know what that means? FINALLY, we can be assured our hero/heroine will not pop up a couple months down the road on someone else's cover. And whether you're a reader or an author, we ALL roll our eyes whenever we see the same guy/gal in that same tired pose on cover, after cover, after cover whether it be digital or print.

Too bad this didn't come along sooner. The lingerie-clad mocha beauty on my debut novel now resides in virtual moral turpitude on no less than five different covers. Better yet, here's an example using my third release Forever, I Do co-authored with Taige Crenshaw:

So, all of you authors out there who like to control your product or dabble in creating your own covers, you might want to save yourself the heartache when your vision of Randy, a special operative werewolf with a fetish for spanking is reincarnated as Bud, a door to door salesman who likes to get diddled by a dominant fem.


To check out Jimmy Thomas' stock pile visit: romancenovelcovers.com