Today is another of my series of questions from readers and writers. Anyone can ask a question for the blog, just post it as a comment in any blog I've written or as a message here at MySpace. I'll answer them in the order I receive them. Today's question is from Lady Lauren:

If I post on my blog scenes from the story I'm working on, do you think that will make it easier or harder to sell when I get to that stage?!....

Any time you are giving wide-spread exposure to your unpublished or unfinished work you do take some risks. First, you’re opening yourself up to a very small risk of plagiarism. Secondly, you open yourself up to feedback, which is not necessarily a good thing. Everyone and anyone, qualified or not, will have something to say. And if the writing isn’t exactly “perfect”, you could potentially lose fans, not gain them, which I assume is why you’re posting your work in the first place. It won’t matter that you’ll revise what you’ve posted or have it professionally edited by your editor or that the story/writing may change significantly… your first impression will be the only one you get with some people.

An then there is the publishing question. If you end up selling to a large, mainstream, New York publisher, I would guess it would make very little difference to them. Unless you’re getting a million hits to your site, your work won’t really have been given away to too many readers. Though they will likely ask you to take down most of what you’ve posted (there are limits to how much you can post for free that are part of most contracts).

However, if you end up selling to a smaller or epublisher, you may run into problems. The medium is similar, their sales numbers will likely be smaller (so the number of people who have seen a large chunk free will make up a bigger percentage for them than for a larger publisher with wider distribution). ....

In the end, it isn’t necessarily something I recommend. I think it opens you up to more disadvantages than advantages to post works in progress. If you want to expose potential readers to your voice, it might be better to do it with one-off short stories. Things you don’t intend to sell, but exclusive content to your website. You’ll get all the advantages and fewer disadvantages that way.

That’s just my opinion though. I’m sure there are other authors who would feel differently.

Today is another of my series of questions from readers and writers. Anyone can ask a question for the blog, just post it as a comment in any blog I've written or as a message here at MySpace. I'll answer them in the order I receive them. Today's question is from For a pessimistic, I’m pretty optimistic:

Have you ever thought about writing non historic romance novels? Like in 21st century?

You know, I get this question pretty often. The fact is that I really love historical romance, especially historical romance set in the Regency period. When I get ideas for stories, they almost always fall into that category. From time to time, I have an idea that is contemporary or even fantasy, but it’s usual a one-off idea, not something I could actually build something on.

The fact is that authors want to not only tell stories, but build a career. To do that, you have to let readers know what they’re going to get when they pick up a “Jenna Petersen” book. If that changes every time a book comes out, then readers have a tendency to sort of roam off and find someone whose voice they understand.

So at this point, I’m happy writing historical romance and that’s the place where I’m building a career. I’d never absolutely rule out ever writing anything different, but for now the answer is no. I’m a historical girl and I hope my readers will be happy about that!

Good morning everyone and happy release day! Yes, HER NOTORIOUS VISCOUNT should be on shelves at stores near you across the country (and Canada). I hope you find and enjoy this book. I honestly loved writing it. If you don’t see it in your local bookstore, as always it’s a huge favor to me if you ask for it. Often the books are in the store, but have not yet been put out. If you ask, it might speed that process along. So I always appreciate it!

Thanks again for all your support everyone!

Jane Fenton is certain that her brother is lost in London’s notorious underground, not dead as he has been declared. The infamous Viscount Nicholas Stoneworth has just returned from that dangerous world, where he lived for many years as a fighter. When the innocent Jane approaches the dissolute Viscount for help finding her sibling, he offers her a bargain. If she helps him relearn the niceties of Society, he will use his questionable connections to locate her brother. Though each believes their part of the bargain is an impossible task, they agree for their own sakes. But as the two begin to work closely together, Jane discovers there is much more to the angry ex-pugilist than Society believes. And Nicholas finds a pillar of strength beneath Jane’s soft exterior.  

But Nicholas’s drive to withhold the truth about Jane’s brother may threaten the fragile bond between beauty and her beast. And his triumphant return to society may end any chance they have of ever being together.

Hi everyone,

I'm very pleased to announce that I am going to be the author launching Avon's reading group at Facebook. I know many of you also have accounts over there. From March 31-April 14 I'll be posting new discussion topics every day about HER NOTORIOUS VISCOUNT's characters, themes and much more! And Avon is giving away prizes for joining and for posting replies to the discussions. So come on by and join us! I'd love the support from everyone!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avon-An-Im....print-of-HarperCollins-Publishers/125273....49215?ref=ts#
XOXO,
JennaP

Today is another of my series of questions from readers and writers. Anyone can ask a question for the blog, just post it as a comment in any blog I've written or as a message here at MySpace. I'll answer them in the order I receive them. Today's question is from Letters From Sweetbrier:....

Ok so how do you approach your more amorous scenes. I sometimes find I have embarrassed myself writing them. Do people seem to think that’s "YOU"??

Well, you have to remember that everything you write for your characters is for THEM, not you. If you wrote about a chracter killing someone, would you be freaked out? Would you worry that people would think you were a murderer? Love scenes are the same way. You're writing them because they are right at that moment for your characters. So try to seperate yourself from them.

As far as what other people think... you're always going to have some idiot who waggles his eyebrows at you and acts like what you've written is what you are. He's an idiot. There's not a lot you can really do about what someone else thinks. Except bring up the murderer thing, I guess. Of course, sometimes the idiots of the world make me want to do more "research" on other scenes in my books. LOL.

Hope that helps. ..

Today is another of my series of questions from readers and writers. Anyone can ask a question for the blog, just post it as a comment in any blog I've written or as a message here at MySpace. I'll answer them in the order I receive them. Today's question is from Jessica:.

Where do you get your character names from?

Actually I use a wonderful resource called Names Through the Ages by Teresa Norman. I love this book because it lists names that were popular in different regions of the world during different times. Plus, it lists the meanings of names and has a special section for surnames, too. I think it might be out of print now, but you should be able to easily find one used for a reasonable price (I think Amazon has it or $15ish, Abebooks has it under $20).

Another resource I use is a printout of the names of the members of the House of Lords that I downloaded via Wikipedia. I don’t use real names, but it does give me a starting place, a jumping off point.

Really it just comes down to not yanking the reader out of the story because a name doesn’t “right”. Especially in a historical romance.

So I hope that helps!