Category Archives: Other
Product Reviews (and what I think about them)
Hello!
Someone asked me recently about book reviews and the impact they had and if authors thought they were worth it. I thought this was an interesting question, since I’ve kind of been on both sides of it and been able to see how exactly reviews work and affect things on a different level than a lot of readers have. Secretly, I also have an obsession with buying things off of Amazon, and I read a lot of reviews. My most recent purchase is this really neat can opener, for anyone interested.
Anyways! I’m not going to talk just about book reviews right now, though I’ll get to that. I just want to mention reviews in general for a moment, so bear with me.
Why did I buy this particular can opener? Oddly, I didn’t look at the number of stars it had until just now, so that wasn’t it. Mostly, it looks really fancy, especially from the thumb nail. Also, it’s eligible for Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, which is important to me because I have Amazon Prime(it’s really neat and I recommend it if you like to buy things online). I’m a huge sucker for free shipping and prefer to buy things with it, and this can opener had it.
After that, well, it’s a can opener, right? It is, but it isn’t. I needed to read some reviews for this, so I did. I don’t actually read product descriptions a lot when I buy things like this, because they don’t tend to tell you too much(weird, huh?). This can opener in particular is guilty of this. It’s got a bunch of fancy words, but they don’t say much, and that bothers me. This is important, and I’ll come back to it in a moment.
I always check the 1-star reviews first, because I need to see if there’s any legitimate complaints. Check them out if you want.
Mostly, these reviews aren’t saying anything either. Someone gave 1 star because the cord isn’t long enough? Someone else didn’t read the instructions and couldn’t figure out how to get it to cut. Another person admits that they think they got a faulty can opener but didn’t bother to contact the seller and return it. To me, these aren’t very legitimate. If the cord is too short, I can get an extension, or if I can’t figure out how to make it cut then I’ll read the instructions, you know? If it’s broken, I’ll contact the company to get a replacement.
Now, if the company screamed at me after I called or emailed them and told me I was stupid, I’d probably give them a 1-star, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s rated it 1-star for that reason. The only thing I can really gather from this is that these are the type of people who will complain about everything.
For some interesting insight, Tim Ferriss actually mentions this exact thing in one of his recent blog posts. That’s kind of a long article, but interesting. For ease of reference, here’s exactly what he mentions: “The 1- and 2-star are usually written by people who hate everything (look at their other reviews if you
doubt me).”
So, you might wonder, why did I choose this can opener? I definitely needed to make sure there were no legitimate complaints at first, but after that, I checked out some of the more positive reviews. This one sold me immediately. It’s simple and to the point. He made a video of him opening a can with a regular can opener, then shows how the can opener in question works differently. That’s all I wanted to know and see, and once I saw the video, I decided this was a can opener I’d like. Easy, right?
It really is, but that’s the problem with reviews, too. People get confused about what makes a good review, or why they should pay attention to reviews, and for books it can be even worse. If you see a book with a 1-star, you might suddenly assume it’s bad, right? Except what if that poor rating doesn’t say anything? Is it fake? Is it just someone being angry because they’re always angry? Let me find a random book(that isn’t mine) and I’ll cue you in on some good strategies to take in regards to reviews. I’m going to pick a book in the “erotica” category on Amazon because in my experience, those tend to get some of the weirdest reviews.
The first book that came up is Seduced in the Dark, by CJ Roberts. I’ve actually heard this is a pretty good book, so I think it’s an interesting subject for this. Let’s look at the 1-stars, shall we?
The first one, the first line, says she didn’t finish the book, so it’s hard to really understand why she gave it a 1-star rating(because maybe it got better, you know?), but she does go on to say a lot more, so it’s not too bad. The rest of the review is actually really useful, so I’d say this is actually a “good” 1-star. You know what you’re getting into, and she goes into good detail about why she didn’t like it. Now, maybe someone else would LOVE the book for these reasons, right? I don’t know. It’s possible. Overall, despite the “negative” rating, I like this review.
Further on, you have another review that’s sort of the same. She also didn’t finish the book. The problem is, we don’t know why. There is literally no useful information in this review. I completely believe that this reader didn’t like the book, but I don’t know why. And she’s telling us not to read it? I think people should be nice in their reviews, even if they don’t like it, because at the very least, the author deserves some respect for the time they put into the book, right? To be fair, she wasn’t really mean in her review, but the “Don’t read” and with no further information, is just weird to me. If she told me why I shouldn’t read it, then I might agree.
And, on that same note, for books, I really only take into consideration people talking about the plot. If you browse Amazon a lot, or any other book selling site, you’ll notice people tend to randomly mention “grammar” and “poor writing,” but in my experience these tend to be go-to responses for “I didn’t like the book but I don’t know why, so I’m going to say they wrote it badly.” No one needs to know these things, because every e-book has a sample available that you can read. You will be able to immediately tell if a book has bad grammar or poor writing by reading the sample, right? If someone says a book has poor writing, and that’s their only complaint, it’s a good idea to read some of the sample yourself to check if it’s true or not. Sometimes it really is true, but sometimes it’s just people complaining because they’re angry at something and like to complain(see above).
Be forewarned, though! This doesn’t just happen with bad reviews. It happens in good ones, too.
I am positive this person loved this book, but I have no idea why. It’s great to know that they liked it a lot, and as an author it’s still really nice to get feedback like this. It’s important and it makes us happy to know our readers love our stuff. As a reader, it doesn’t tell me much about the book, though.
This MIGHT be alright, because it’s the second book in the series, you know? If I read the first book in the series and I loved it, and I see someone else who also loved it, then that’s useful to me in a different sort of way. We both loved the first book, and they loved the second, so we share similarities in what we like to read, and that’s enough. As an outside reader who hasn’t read this book, I’d need to find a more descriptive review, though.
Or, alternatively, I don’t actually read the reviews for books very often. I like to read the descriptions and check out the samples to decide if I want to read things most times, so maybe I’m a little weird. I’ve loved books that everyone else hates, and hated books that everyone else loves.
And this is fine! It’s basically exactly what I’m talking about here.
I guess the takeaway is that reviews are important in as much as if they provide information. It doesn’t matter what star rating anything gets, or what anyone gives, it’s more about what they will tell me about what I’m looking at. If they don’t tell me anything, then I don’t know anything. If they tell me weird things that don’t really make sense, it’s kind of the same. If they tell me things that I can check, and already know from glancing at the product, that’s not really useful or exciting.
If I do look at a review, I don’t look at the star ratings, I look at what the person is actually telling me. I might love something for the same reason someone hated something, and that makes their review wonderful and very useful to me.
I kind of wish reviews didn’t have ratings at all, and it was just people talking about the product, because then there’d be a lot more useful ideas being tossed around. That’s what I think, anyways. Reviews can really hurt or help people because some people don’t bother to read them, too. There’s also fake reviews, or reviews that got confused, or any number of things. Some people don’t think before they review things, either, and they don’t realize that there’s a person behind the product, and that person relies on this product to make money to live. For me, this is actually why I don’t rate things badly very often(unless they are legitimately bad and I have many reasons for this). I don’t feel comfortable with it, because I don’t want anyone to starve or not be able to pay their rent or buy their children new clothes, you know? I’m not saying people shouldn’t give items, books, or whatever a low review, but if you do then at least be considerate with it. Tell people why you didn’t like it, and respect the fact that maybe someone else would love it. That’s just how life is =)
So, that’s what I think about reviews. It’s kind of a lot of words, but I hope it helps someone.
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Massive Amazon Kindle Changes
I didn’t want to have to write this, but there’s a lot of information(and misinformation) going around about this particular topic, and I wanted to make a post to explain this better. It seems like something simple and minor at first, but it isn’t. It has very wide-sweeping effects and as a writer, reader, or just a customer who occasionally purchases things at Amazon, I feel that everyone should understand a little about what’s going on.
As an aside to that, no one but Amazon knows -exactly- what this is or why it’s happening. There’s enough evidence to point out a few of the causes and effects through observation, but Amazon requires strict NDAs from its employees that are in certain parts of the business, and so they’re never going to come right out and explain everything. Amazon is like Christian Grey, and we’re all Anastasia Steele from book one. This is new and a little frightening to a lot of us, with scary implications, but that Amazon sure is attractive and appealing beneath his veneer of mystery. I don’t know how the rest of this story is going to pan out, but I’d like to think there’s a happy ending by the time we reach book three.
Anyways, what’s currently happening is what’s referred to as the “ADULT” filter. I don’t know what Amazon refers to it as, nor do I believe they refer to it as anything in the public eye, but they have a filter that they put on content that is deemed “ADULT.”
You can’t see this filter. It’s impossible. It’s a very strange filter in those regards. If you do a search through Google, you know that you can turn your adult filter on and off(I keep mine off, personally, because I’m the only one who uses my computer and I don’t have children around my computer that often). This is how it is for most places. These filters are called a lot of different things, too. SafeSearch, Adult Filter, etc. It all boils down to the same thing. They try to filter out adult content that isn’t suitable for children.
I completely understand and accept the reasoning behind this and I have no complaints with it. It makes perfect sense when done correctly and the way that Google(and tons of other companies before them) have done.
Amazon has this filter, sort of, except they won’t tell you about it. They don’t even tell authors about it. If your book gets adult filtered, you might never know. There are some ways to figure it out, and many authors do know, but not all of them. The easiest way is to go straight to the Amazon homepage and search for an author. If you want to try it out, search for “cerys du lys.” As of me writing this, I have 50 various books available(this includes paperback and audiobooks). If you search for my name on the Amazon homepage, you only receive 33 options, though. That’s because the rest of them are filtered.
You can easily get around this filter, but the issue with it is that Amazon won’t explain that to you. The way to get around it(meaning the way you’d find books that are filtered) is to change your category from “All” to either “Books” or “Kindle Store.” This will bring up “ADULT” filtered books in your search results. Alternatively, if you search for books on your Kindle, you’ll automatically be in the “Kindle Store” and you’ll also receive filtered books in your search results without having to do anything.
This sounds kind of alright, maybe, except not really. If Amazon wanted to truly filter out adult books from being seen by children, this doesn’t do it. Children searching for books will find the adult books along with the regular books. They aren’t given a choice of “adult” or not. They’re given a choice of “books” or “not books.” That doesn’t seem like the proper way to institute a filter by any means. It’s akin to Google changing their SafeSearch to state “Do you want to receive websites with kittens or porn?”
I am a proponent of a filter. As an erotic literature writer, I obviously don’t have many issues with sex. I think sex is perfectly fine and people should enjoy it as adults if they wish to, in whatever ways they prefer. If they want to read about it in books, or watch movies, or think about it, or perform safe sex acts with their partner, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Sex is natural and fun and the majority of us wouldn’t be here without it(except for in-vitro people, sort of, but that’s something else entirely). Sex fantasies in a book are probably the safest form of sexual entertainment in existence, too. Absolutely no one was hurt or potentially harmed in the creation of it, nor is it likely that many people are going to be harmed while reading it.
I could honestly go on and on about that particular topic and how people who enjoy sexual entertainment are, on average, MORE sympathetic to people and appreciate and accept everyone more widely and treat people with more respect, but this isn’t about that. There are people who think sex is bad, and I have no issue with blocking sex from children, even though I think a better means of raising children to adults is to teach them about sex properly instead of throwing them into a sexually-repressed cage. That’s also another topic entirely. There’s plenty of articles about both of these things, and I’d be happy to share or talk about in another blog post or through email if anyone’s interested.
Anyways, blocking sex and adult content is perfectly fine, and I’m fine with that, but Amazon isn’t blocking it in a responsible way.
Besides that, they aren’t evenly applying the filter, either. If something is “erotica” then it’s likely adult-oriented, right? Except not all erotica is filtered according to Amazon’s standards. I can somewhat understand this, because there are some appreciable books in the erotica genre(like Fifty Shades of Grey). This book transcends erotica in some ways and switches over to romance aspects. There is such a genre as erotic romance, and lots of places categorize it as such, but Amazon doesn’t have an “erotic romance” category. They have a bunch of “romance” categories and then “erotica.”
Not filtering everything doesn’t seem -too- bad at first, except the filter does various things to books. Besides hiding them from the “All” search on Amazon(and making them show up only in “Books” or “Kindle Store”), the filter also removes books from Also-Boughts. What this means is that when you go to a book’s product page(or any product page, really), you’ll see something lower down that says “Customers who bought this item also bought:” with a list of items. This seems small, but it’s kind of like a sharing list of things that people enjoyed and also bought. It’s somewhat useful if you want to buy something similar to what you’ve already bought, but you aren’t sure what to buy. You can check the “Also Boughts” and see if something there is something that you’d like.
“Also Boughts” acts as free advertisement, basically. The issue with the filter and “Also Boughts” is that filtered books only show up in other filtered books “Also Boughts.” And, besides that, Amazon has been known to remove “Also Boughts” without notice or reason. I’ve had books on the “Also Boughts” lists of some BIG books and received a lot of attention for that, and then… whoops! All of a sudden my book was gone(even though it WAS a book that people of the other book would have enjoyed, as they were similar in the right ways and not some cheap copy/imitation).
The point there is that Amazon intentionally skews their advertisement of certain things and the “Also Boughts” aren’t actually “Also Boughts” anymore. They’re more like “Yes, these are things that people also bought after buying this book, but they’re the things we’ve decided to show you as opposed to the things that customers actually bought.”
(For anyone curious, one of the books this happened to me with was Soulless, my paranormal/zombie erotic romance, and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies. Soulless was on the first page of Warm Bodies “Also Boughts” for multiple weeks, which made perfect sense. They are extremely similar books. My book was removed in favor of books like Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. I enjoy Nicholas Sparks books, and actually I liked Dear John, too, but how is a contemporary literary fiction/quasi-romance novel at all related to paranormal romance? I have no idea)
If all of these things weren’t enough, Amazon’s searches typically end up showing “filtered” content below the unfiltered content. If they filtered everything evenly, then this shouldn’t be a problem, except they don’t do this. Many small publishers aren’t being filtered, despite putting books in erotica. I have nothing against these small publishers, but I prefer to independently publish because I’m kind of a control freak and I like to control everything about myself and my writing. I think that most of the time my results are very professional and on par with any small publisher, which is kind of saying a lot. There’s a lot of indie authors that you can barely even tell they were indie. I mean, Abbi Glines is pretty huge in e-books right now, and she’s an indie author, if that’s telling you anything.
What this ends up doing is that it hides content from everyone. Not only does it initially hide content from the “All” search, but it hides content on the “Also Boughts” and it hides content on searches when you’re specifically trying to find this content.
To be more forthcoming, the initial filtering seemed fine. Amazon was filtering books with titles referencing gangbangs or breeding. I’m not sure why those got filtered first. Lactation and impregnation and things like that came next. These are probably adult titles and erotica, so it makes sense, right? Now they’ve started filtering more, though. Titles that reference “menage” or things like that are being filtered along with gangbangs. There are a lot of nice romance books involving MFM/MMF dynamics, but Amazon has decided that sex with more than one person is more adult and should be filtered? It’s not even real sex, it’s fictional book sex. If three people want to be in a loving, committed relationship, and have sex with each other, this is apparently wrong to write about. I just can’t even begin to understand that one, but it’s definitely happening.
So, there it is. As people who use Amazon, I hope I’ve informed you a little. If you don’t use Amazon, it probably doesn’t effect you very much. To reiterate, I don’t disagree with a filtering system(in fact, I would welcome one), but the way in which Amazon is currently filtering things is irresponsible. Seeing as they’re a 107.09 billion dollar company, and still extremely alluring to customers, I don’t really see that there’s anything to do about this. What it does mean is that you’re going to see a lot fewer authors willing to push boundaries and write interesting things, though. We’re being penalized for it, and there’s very little we can do about it.
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Let the Blog Tour Begin! (Blog Tour, Giveaways, Reviews, and More!)
(I know I write erotica and erotic romance and all of that, but I just got The Hunger Games in the mail today and I wanted to use a similar line for my post title. Does it make me a bad erotic literature writer if I read YA fantasy novels? Haha.)
(There’s a giveaway a little lower on this post, so keep reading! Or be a cheater and just scroll down a bunch.)
The blog tour will run from 4/22/13 – 5/3/13
Tour Stops so far (updated daily as they show up):
Meet and Greet (Reading Addiction Blog Tours)
Review – The Steamy Side
Review – Amber’s Reading Room
Guest Post – Jessica Loves Books
Review + Interview – Faerie Tale Books
Review – Author EverLeigh
Review – Sweet n’ Sassi
Review – Gimme the Scoop Reviews
Review – Busy Mom Book Reviews
Review – Fetch Me My Fainting Couch
Review Wrap-Up – Reading Addiction Blog Tours
Any~ways!
Hello and welcome! This is the beginning of my blog tour! This is actually the second day, sort of, but the first was more of a Meet and Greet as opposed to a typical tour stop and review. It’s still a great stop and you should check it out to get some neat inside into my inner thoughts. If you want to get insight about my inner thoughts, at least(is that a thing people like? I think it’s neat when I read other writer’s interviews, but I’m still a little new at this. Bare with me![that last part was an erotic wordplay joke >.> ]).
Seriously, though, Cami’s been so wonderful and helpful and I really enjoyed doing the Meet and Greet with her, so I’d love if you checked it out. You can find more similar styles of things on her Tour Blog site, so if you want to check out previous authors Meet and Greets or keep an eye out for new ones, that’s definitely the place to go.
The blog tour is basically like a virtual book tour. I’ll be making stops at a variety of different blogs over the course of 12 days(one day in the middle is a break/empty day, though), with reviews from book bloggers at each. A few stops also contain guest posts written by me on a variety of subjects(I wrote a bunch and let them decide which they want to use, so I’m not sure exactly what will be where yet, but I’ll post any that they don’t use on this blog sometime after the tour is done).
The reason I wanted to do this tour is because this is my first full-length novel. It’s true that the Princess Miri series has been available in a section/serialized style of format(though all of my stories are standalone, too, so you don’t -need- to read them all in one). A full-length novel is a really big endeavour(I like British spelling), though. It’s a risk for readers, too. I’ve priced the Princess Miri novel competitively, so even if you don’t like it, it’s not much of a loss, but I really feel like that’s a bad way of putting it. Mostly, I want you to like it if you buy it. If you aren’t going to like it, I don’t want to be that person who doesn’t care and just takes your money. I write a lot of different things and I’m positive you’ll like -something- I’ve written, but I’m not going to delude myself into believing everyone should like everything. Life just doesn’t work that way.
So this blog tour is for that. I’ve offered free copies to various book blogs in exchange for a review and a spot on the tour(or, Cami set it up mostly, because she’s awesome like that. I followed her lead). These are people who read books with a critical eye and will gladly inform you of exactly what they liked or disliked, found odd, or any of that. My purpose is to write and sell my books, so I’m biased and I understand this, but these reviewers are a great unbiased source of information that I wanted to offer to you all so you can see if this book is something you’d like or not. You’ll have both sides of it all(mine and theirs), and I’ll tell you right now that some of them disliked certain parts of the novel, while others found those same parts interesting, or disliked other parts.
You’ll get it all, anyways! If you’re on the fence and unsure about the book, this blog tour is for you.
Also, I’m doing a signed/inscribed book giveaway, which I’ll add in right here. Click the part below to reveal the giveaway thingy(like a scratch-off lottery ticket!):
In addition, I’ll be doing a Goodreads giveaway for a signed/inscribed version of the book after the tour is done, too. The Goodreads giveaway will only be for a couple of days(estimated for 5/7, 5/8, and 5/9), so keep an eye out for that(and sign up for Goodreads if you haven’t already! You can find me on there too and I’d love to make new friends, so feel free to send me a friend’s request.
If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask! Here or at one of the tour stops is fine. I’ll answer everything as best I can.
What do you think of the tour so far? Is this anyone’s first tour, too? Nervous? (I might be, haha).
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Why do you write in so many different genres and styles?
Hello! Happy Monday!
I don’t know if anyone is actually curious about this, but I feel like it’s an interesting topic, and one that you don’t see a lot of writers talk about or do. Mainly, why do I write in so many different genres and styles?
Well, honestly, I don’t think they’re all that different, but here’s what I’ve got so far. Monster stuff is a big one, and then contemporary romance is the next. I recently finished my paranormal romance series(Soulless, Heartless, Hopeless), which was fun. I’ve also got some fairytale stuff, too. Historical, romantic comedy, noir detective mystery, urban fantasy, and a few more things that probably fit into one of the above but are a bit different, too.
All of these have erotic content, though, so I guess that’s the thread that binds them? I don’t know if that’s a good reason and I don’t really accept it, myself, but it’s there.
Anyways! I write them because I like that. That sounds kind of like a cop out answer, I guess, but it’s just fun to me. I enjoy exploring new genres and taking my own spin on them. I think that’s what this boils down to, really.
If I’m being perfectly honest, I prefer medieval fantasy-style stuff. Or I used to prefer it, anyways. I don’t think that’s a good mindset to get into with this kind of thing. I mean, hey, if I just wrote medieval fantasy all the time, I’d have a lot of that, and that’d be great, but… then what? I know authors who do this and have read more than my fair share of books from authors who basically never branched out from any one genre. It honestly gets stale and you can tell in their writing.
One random example–and I’m only using her as one because I honestly really love her writing, so it was kind of a love/hate thing, but I’ve got tons of respect for her–is Elizabeth Haydon. The first three stories in her Symphony of Ages series were WONDERFUL. I absolutely adored them and I would suggest them to everyone and read them over and over again(and I think I have). They’re kind of fantasy romance with adventure and action and all of that. After the first three, though, it started going downhill. I believe I enjoyed the 4th, but the 5th was kind of lacking, and I can’t say I enjoyed the 6th at all.
After she “finished” that series(because honestly it just kind of stopped, and I’m not sure it ever really fully concluded anything), she started up a YA series set in the same world. I haven’t read those, but I think that’s an interesting thing to do. Mostly, the other books were VERY adult, with sex and violence and all of those kinds of adult things. I have no idea how her YA fantasy books are, but I’m sure they’re nice because she has a wonderful style and tells a good story.
That’s really the thing, though. She got herself stuck in the Symphony of Ages books and I think it showed. By the end of the 6 book series, I don’t think she was as into it as the first three books. It feels like she wrote more because she felt like she NEEDED to write more, and not because she wanted to. Sometimes this can work out, but I think a lot of times it leads to burn out and disappointment.
I’d still read her books if she continued with the series, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea on her part.
In the same kind of genre, Jacqueline Carey does an excellent job of writing the same but switching it up, too. Her Kushiel’s Legacy books start with three wonderful books, then continue on with three more great ones(my favorites of hers actually), and there’s three more after that. They’re all in the same world, but each set of three switches the main character, and so provides a new and interesting fresh look at her world of Terre d’Ange. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure the last three worked out so well with that, but they -were- interesting, just not really my favorites. Or, I’ve only read the first on of there(the seventh overall), so maybe I’ll change my mind when I get to the last two? I don’t know.
And even still, she has other books that are great, too. Her more traditional epic fantasy books kind of fit with the Kushiel’s ones, and then she completely throws you for a loop with some urban fantasy/paranormal stuff later on. I think this is great and a good idea.
So that’s where I stand, really. For my own writing, I want to write interesting things and continue writing them. If I’m really into an idea, I think I’ll tell a better story than otherwise. I want you, as a reader, to love what I’m writing as much as I do. I do “force” myself to write things, also, but I try not to push it too far. I try to explore new genres and test out ideas because I want to. It’s more of a “forcing myself to do this because I want to” instead of a “forcing myself to do this and I hate it,” which I think is a key difference.
And, honestly? I think it’s turned out well. I never liked contemporary stuff much before, so I rarely wrote it, but I wanted to try one. My best friend isn’t really into reading anything fantasy and she sticks to just contemporary stuff when she reads(which isn’t a ton, but she does read a few books a year), so I wanted to do it for that reason, too. I wanted to write something that she would want to read, so I wrote my Billionaire’s Ultimatum series.
I didn’t really like it at first, truthfully. I didn’t like it because it was HARD for me. But, on that same note, I think it became a much better story because of that. It made me think and decide on different things and try out new ideas and a new style of writing. I never liked first person point of view much before writing that, either, but I thought I’d try that out, also.
Now? I like contemporary. I think The Billionaire’s Ultimatum is a fun story and I’ve received a lot of good feedback on it, so I think I probably did a good job writing it, too. I didn’t like how hard it was for me to write it at first, but I got better with practice and I really loved the idea of the story itself, so I kept up with it. It’s different, it tested me, and overall it was fun and a good experience.
The same with the Soulless series, too. The same with most of my stuff, honestly. The only thing I can’t really get too into is the gay shifter story I wrote, because it was just kind of difficult to really get a handle on the idea, but I think it turned out well. I’d like to write another gay male story in the future, or at least maybe bi-curious or something.
Anyways! I write in these different genres and styles because I like them and I want to try them. I don’t think any of my stuff is so far out there that you’ll be absolutely appalled if you see it in my catalogue along with something you’ve liked, either. I mean, some of it seems pretty far out there, but it’s still me writing it. I have standards and a general style and I promise to try to never disappoint any of my readers with sub-par, worthless junk.
Sometimes you just want to try something new, you know? Sometimes it’s easier to get eased into that new thing, though. If you like my writing, you’ll know generally how I write, and so it’s a nicer process trying something different as opposed to having to find a completely different author that you’re unsure about, and then reading their stuff, too. I know how much of a turn-off that can end up being, where you want to try, say, a science fiction book or something, but you end up finding the one that’s super confusing and weird and you have no idea what’s going on. Then you think you hate science fiction! And, honestly, I’m not actually a huge fan of science fiction, but I absolute love some of it.
It’s good to try new things sometimes. And maybe to take slow, baby steps, so you don’t get overwhelmed.
That’s the reason I do what I do, at least.
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New Direction
Hey!
I’ve recently made a decision. It’s honestly a difficult one to make, because it involves a certain amount of risk, but I’m willing to do it because I think it’s a good idea. I had this in my mind the entire time I started this, but I was never sure if I’d be moving along as well as I have.
My writing has been going well, though. I’ve landed on some Hot New Release lists, a few best sellers(I need to update that, but so far it’s Fantasy Series, Gay & Lesbian, Comic Fiction, Fairytales, Erotica[Brazil only], and Fantasy Romance[Germany]).
I want to push it farther, though, and I think you, as my readers, deserve that, too. My catalogue will still mainly consist of fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance, with some other fantasy and paranormal things added in for fun, but I’m moving into something more.
I’m not trying to be vague there. What I mean is paperback books and full-length novel e-books. I’m working on some audiobooks, too, but those are mostly beyond my control. One’s available, though! (I’ll show that at the end)
Anyways! What does this mean for you, as a reader? Well, the first paperback book slated for release is the full-length Princess Miri book, “Princess Miri: An Erotic Coming of Age Monster Romance.” The title’s maybe a bit of a mouthful, but I wanted to sum it up in as few words as possible, and there it is. The paperback will be released with an initial price of $7.99, and the e-book will be released soon, too. I’m hoping to have both of them out in a week or two, but I need to wait on some outside things first.
And, next? The Billionaire’s Ultimatum series will be packaged up into a print book and e-book version. That’ll be a little farther down the road, in a couple months or so. I do most of this myself(and I still have to write new stuff, so there’s that).
I didn’t know where to price them, though. It’s honestly difficult. I think I’ve come up with a solution, though.
I’ll be pricing paperback books as low as I can for as long as I can, but I do want to reach a wider audience, too. I know most people use a Kindle and Amazon, but I have a lot of people who buy my books from B&N and iTunes, too. iTunes isn’t too important for this, but B&N sells paperback books, so I don’t want to leave them out. This is technical junk, but in order to sell to B&N, I need to raise the price a little. I’m -hoping- that the end price for most books will be around $9.99, but I can’t 100% guarantee that.
E-books are different, though! I can price those at competitive prices everywhere, with everything being relatively low. Herein lies the issue, though. The original Princess Miri series, bought as parts, is pricier than what I’d like to price the full-length novel version as. What I -want- to do is price it at around $4.99, with occasional sales dropping it lower. I’m almost positive this is what I’m going to do, but if anyone wants to offer comments or opinions, I’m willing to listen.
Mainly, the full-length novel is coming out approximately 8 months after the first Princess Miri story was released. The people who bought it then got to read it far earlier than anyone else. It’s the same story, and fully edited, everything professional, but I’m thinking for those people who wanted to read it early, it’s worth it. Anyone who waits and ends up wanting to read the full-length version can get it cheaper, but they need to wait months before that.
I wasn’t up front with this in the beginning, and I’m really sorry about that, but I didn’t actually know this was anything I was going to do, either. Going forward, my new direction, this is what I’m going to do, though.
Basically, if you want to read everything first, then you can buy all of my writing in parts. These will be full parts, with a story in each, with an estimated length of 8,000-25,000 words each(approximately 32-100 paperback pages). Once the entire story is done, I’ll wait a few months(at least 6 months, maybe more, after the release of the first “part” of any story), and release a paperback version and a novel-length e-book version.
I’ll make everyone aware of this in the future as best I can. The easiest way to learn about any of this is to follow my site(there’s a button on the side!) and/or sign up for my newsletter(there’s a link on the side!). Almost everything with multiple “parts”(though I’m transitioning to putting (#number) instead, because these are still full stories in their own right) will end up like this.
Again, I’m -VERY- sorry that I wasn’t crystal clear about this in the beginning. I completely understand that it might make some people upset. I know it’s not the best thing ever, but I’m working on getting some bookmarks and stuff like that to do fun giveaways, and if you’re angry about this, I’d be happy to send some your way free of charge. Just email me at cerysdulys (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know(they aren’t ready yet, but I’m going to get them set in a few weeks). You can also send me angry fanmail, or ask me questions, or just talk, and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
So! Again! Going forward, new direction. If you want to read something first, you can. It’ll cost a bit more, but it will be available to you FIRST. This, in my opinion, is pretty neat. If you like the idea of something but you’d rather wait and get it a little cheaper, or you prefer a paperback version? You can do that, too, but you’ll need to wait 6+ months or so.
I’ll also occasionally be holding book giveaways and things like that. I’ll do the book giveaways through Goodreads, so if you haven’t signed up there before, now is a great time to do it! I’m not very good at Goodreads(it’s misleading!) and I have no idea what I’m doing yet, but I’d love to make more friends there. Here’s my profile so you can add me: http://www.goodreads.com/CerysduLys
And, to end it, here’s a sample for the first audiobook in The Billionaire’s Ultimatum series! I think Lauren did a great job. Give it a listen and let me know what you think? =)
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Happy Valentine’s Day!
(At the bottom of this post are some fun flash fiction pieces from some characters from my writing. Scroll down to the “Valentine’s Day Stories” section if you’d rather get right to those)
“A Note from Me” or “How to be Sexy and Satisfy People (in a happy way, don’t get dirty thoughts here)”
I hope everyone’s having a great Valentine’s Day so far, and hopefully it’ll be even nicer later in the afternoon and evening. I think even if you’re single, today is a fun day, and everyone should enjoy it.
So I have some things planned for everyone for this Valentine’s Day to make it more fun and exciting, no matter who you are.
First, some DOs and DON’Ts, brought to you by the Daily News (mostly because I don’t know anything about this and they have statistics which seem neat).
Apparently 85% of people say sex is the centerpiece of their Valentine’s Day. That’s quite a bit. I don’t know how that works for single people exactly, but don’t forget to practice safe-sex habits, people. Besides that, I won’t judge. Do what you like and have fun with it!
The Daily News article makes some really good points at the end, though. Don’t overindulge and don’t set your expectations too high. This is supposed to be fun! There’s no need to spend a fortune and it’s not -just- about sex. Talk and enjoy yourself and build up some excitement and anticipation. If it doesn’t work out exactly like you wanted? Well, that’s alright, because I bet it can be just as exciting if you just go with the flow.
I’d absolutely love if everyone’s relationships were as wonderful as some of the ones in erotica and erotic romance, but sometimes they need a bit more work than that, too. Why not talk about it with your boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/whatever you have and figure out a way to make it happen, if just for a day?
One thing that I think could be really sexy/fun is to have your partner(whatever their gender) read aloud from one of your favorite erotic books and really try to get into it. Even if it’s a bit silly, that’s alright. Maybe act it out after, or fulfill some fantasies through that? Are you a girl and think two guys falling head over heels for each other is really attractive? Ask your partner if he’d be willing to read some passages from a gay erotica story out loud and imagine it’s him playing the role of one of the characters.
It’s not going to be perfect, but it can still be fun, and that’s what this is all about.
If you’re single, there’s a lot you can do, too. Ask someone out on a date or stay home and make a special night of it for yourself, or whatever you like. What do you have to lose? Single men and women all like going on dates, even if they don’t lead to anything, and a Valentine’s Day date is especially nice because it makes people feel even happier about the date than regular. I don’t have any real statistics here, but I bet people are more willing to go out on a limb for this kind of thing on Valentine’s Day and accept an offer for a date.
Just, maybe, don’t go overboard there? If it leads to some bedroom antics afterwards, I’m not going to say you should or shouldn’t do that but just be careful. And if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too, because it’s still a fun and nice thing to do.
Also, hey! Epiphora. I love this blog and I think she does a really good job of being down-to-earth and telling it like it is, without getting too crass and without the TMI moments that a lot of stuff like this could have. Check her out here if you’re interested (Please be aware that this is a sex toy review site, so the content is best not viewed in places where this could be potentially awkward).
If you need something to supplement your Valentine’s Day in a pleasant way, she’s probably got a million ideas ready and waiting for you. If you want some erotica/erotic romance stories to help out, too, I’ve got plenty of those, myself. Between my stuff and her site, you should have all your bases covered! (Haha)
Anyways, I think that’s it. Just have fun today! Do you have any plans you want to share, or other ideas, too? I’d love to hear your comments below(just keep them PG-13ish if you do share. Sneaky secrets are more fun than blaring ones).
And, without further adieu!
“Valentine’s Day Stories” (None of these are canon, but just for fun)
These include potential spoilers if you haven’t read the stories! Continue at your own risk.
Princess Miri
Miri was sitting in her room in the castle, absolutely bored. Thump had left with Allysin for whatever reason, and no one else came to amuse her, and this really bothered her. Today was… well, today was a day when no one should be bored(especially her!) and… except maybe Thump didn’t know? Did trolls have Valentine’s Day where they were from? She’d never asked, merely accepted it as a universal truth that everyone should know about it.
But he didn’t, apparently! Ugh! So she was the only one on Valentine’s Day stuck without a lover, was that it? What had Allysin needed to steal him away for, anyways? The cursed servant girl barely touched upon the subject and just skirted around it like it was some vague, unknowable thing. “Oh, yes, I need to borrow Thump to do a few things and then I’ll bring him back.”
Miri needed Thump to do a few things, too, and she needed him now. She could do a few things with herself by herself, but she just didn’t want to.
Someone knocked at the door.
“Go away!” Miri screamed.
They didn’t listen to her and opened the door anyways. Ignoring them, Miri heard Allysin whispering something to Thump, and Thump quietly arguing and sounding rather bashful. That was her favorite thing about him, actually. He acted innocent sometimes, sort of, but then… well, later in bed he was anything but. Dominant and strong and willing to take control!
Except he wasn’t that now, and it struck her as curious, so foregoing her attempt at ignoring the both of them at the door, she glanced up. Allysin pushed the ten foot tall monster into the room and slammed the door behind her.
In the doorway, blushing, Thump held a pretty pair of white panties with the cutest little blue bows on the sides by the hips.
“Are those for me?” she asked. Oh, she hoped so, and really, who else would they be for?
“Allysin tell Thump give to Miri and say Happy Valentine’s,” Thump said, shy. “Here is!” He held them aloft in both hands, stretching them out for her to see them better. “Happy Valentine’s, Miri.”
“Come! Come here! Let me see them. Ooh… they’re cute! Did you pick these out yourself? Do…” She didn’t know why she felt so shy all of a sudden, but she did. “Do you want me to try them on right now?”
Thump smiled at her with his toothy, ugly grin, but in her mind it was the most handsome thing she’d ever seen. Eyes glimmering, mischievous, he said, “Yah.”
His Absolute Valentine’s Day: The Billionaire’s Ultimatum
I knew Asher needed to work, since it was Thursday, but I really wished he didn’t. It was Valentine’s Day–our first together–and I had kind of hoped we could spend the entire day together. Maybe a little unreasonable, but… no, I told myself. I couldn’t begrudge him for working, because he loved his job and I didn’t want to make him feel bad about it no matter what.
That didn’t help me right now, though. Sitting in his guest house, re-living old memories, nostalgia slipping in, I remembered everything we’d gone through. Worrying about this one thing seemed so silly and inconsequential when I thought of it like that and it made me laugh. Valentine’s Day, really?
We did have plans, but I didn’t know how I felt about them. Asher wanted to take me out to the restaurant we’d gone to the day after I met him, which was nice. I told him I didn’t need anything fancy, though; I just wanted to spend time with him. He nodded and smiled and laughed it off.
I half-suspected he had some secret plan, but neither he nor Jeremy would tell me what it was. If there even was one, I reminded myself. Sometimes I ended up expecting so much from Asher–though honestly, he never really disappointed me in those regards, either–but I knew I shouldn’t.
Well, it didn’t matter. It bothered me, but what was the use in that? Was I going to mope around the house all day, hiding away here instead of staying in the main house where I could find more people or things to occupy my time? No! I refused.
But I wanted to look upstairs once more. Awhile back, Asher asked Jeremy to buy me new clothes, and I’d kept some of them here in the closet in the master bedroom. There was one thing in particular that I’d hidden away on the outskirts of the closet because…
Just because. I couldn’t wear that! My gods, it made my cheeks red just thinking about it.
Except I could wear it now, since no one was around. Sneaking up the stairs, slipping into the bedroom, I opened the closet and pulled out the beautiful red corset. I’d never really worn a corset before, but I loved the look of this one. And, made by Frederick’s of Hollywood no less! My heart quickened imagining myself wearing it, laying in bed while I beckoned to Asher, seeing the expression on his face when he saw me there and then wondering what else he might do afterwards.
I nearly tore off my clothes in order to try on the corset. It wasn’t a real corset, not really. It looked and acted like one, but without all of the boning that trained your waist to look thinner. I thought my waist was fairly nice as it was, so I didn’t really need something like that, but the look of it… shoulderless, pushing up my chest, giving me a more accentuated hourglass figure…
I dressed, now wearing only the corset and a matching pair of red underwear. I skipped to the bathroom to inspect myself in the mirror, except…
Asher stood in the bedroom door, watching me. I stared at him, mouth wide open, aghast.
“Asher! I thought you wouldn’t be back until later?”
“I wanted to surprise you for Valentine’s Day,” he said with a grin. “Apparently you’ve got some surprises, too.”
“Oh, uh…”
I blushed and tried to cover myself with my arms, for all the good it did me. Asher strode over and grabbed my wrists lightly, pulling my hands up and over my head. Leaning forward, lips so deliciously close to mine, his breath hot and heavy and wonderful, he said, “I had plans to take a long weekend and bring you somewhere special, but we don’t need to leave for a couple hours…”
“We don’t?” I asked, feeling shaky, my voice fluttering.
“No,” he said. He picked me up by the waist and tossed me onto the bed, admiring me.
Right about them I was pretty sure I loved Valentine’s Day.
(More to come later, possibly! Check back soon!)
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Paperback Books?
I love paperback books.
When I was growing up, they were the majority of what I read. Hardcover books always seemed alluring and mysterious and coveted, but paperbacks were simpler and easier to get. I never really went to the library, though. I don’t know why, but I prefer owning a book as opposed to borrowing it. It seems more real then? Like, what if I want to read it again sometime, but I don’t have it? I do reread my books every so often if I enjoyed them, but usually this is years later. I don’t -need- to own them, but I feel like I should.
I released the first Princess Miri as a paperback awhile back. I wanted to try it out since CreateSpace doesn’t cost much for the author(I bought a proof copy to check it out, but that’s it), and I wanted to get the formatting down. It came out alright, but since that’s a short story, I don’t see a high demand for it. It’s a really cool item, I think, but still.
Anyways! I was thinking about this, and I’d like to get more into it. Most of my short stories are part of a series, and I know a lot of people like to read the entire series as opposed to waiting. I can totally understand this, but for me it’s not really feasible, you know? Not to go too far off on a tangent here, but as a writer there’s a huge mix of stuff you need to deal with. I’d love to say that I only have to worry about the writing and can write all day and it’s lovely, but it’s not always like that. There’s editing, and I make my own covers, plus what if people don’t like the story? What if I fully wrote the Billionaire’s Ultimatum(which is approximately 395 paperback book pages in length), but no one liked it? As a writer, I loved writing it, but as someone who needs to sell her writing in order to pay bills and eat and all of that, it’s tough. Also, I’d like to think that most of my stories can be read as a standalone, since I try to do minor recaps here and there to bring people up to speed. If one doesn’t appeal to you, then you can skip that one and move on to the next in the series.
So, tangent finished there, I realize that some people prefer to read an entire series. And some people prefer paperbacks. My solution to this is that once I’m finished a series, I’ll do my best to promptly release a paperback version! I think that works out for everyone, right? Some might have new cover art, while others will have similar covers as the eBooks(though a bit different). I’ll also eventually release each story separately(like the original Princess Miri), though that’s more for fun than anything else, and random collectibility.
I’m also working on audiobooks, but that’s for another blog post entirely, so we won’t go there for now.
The full paperbacks will be a little cheaper than if you bought the entire series as an eBook, but you’ll also have to wait until the eBooks are finished in order to get one. I’d also like to say that I don’t get nearly as much of a percentage from paperback sales as eBook sales, so this is purely a fan thing. I want people to be happy with my writing and I want to please as many people as possible, and this is a part of that. Despite generally losing out on it and not making much, if any, profit, I’m still going to release the paperbacks for those who prefer them.
The two that are currently slated for this are the Billionaire’s Ultimatum books and the Princess Miri ones. The Billionaire’s Ultimatum will clock in at approximately 395 pages total, while Princess Miri is approximately 215 pages or so. I’m not sure exactly how to manage Allysin’s Sexy Side Story, but that will be included in the Princess Miri paperback, also. Do I put it in between part 3 and 4 like it fits, or include it at the end as an extra? I may also write an epilogue-styled story from Fleur’s point of view about what happens to her once she escapes from the castle.
Those are my plans as of now! The paperbacks will be done through CreateSpace and will be available at Amazon(.com, .co.uk, .de, .fr, .it, and .es) and the CreateSpace store. They -should- also be available through Amazon.ca, B&N online, plus a few others(I’ll get back to you on this one once the book is up and available). Technically you could order the books at a B&N store for instore pick up, but they probably won’t be stocked on the shelves otherwise(though I might be able to convince a few local B&Ns to do it, but that would be a New Hampshire/northern Massachusetts only thing).
So that’s what’s going on! If you liked this blog post or you have any questions/comments about it, let me know by “like”-ing it or commenting on it!
Cerys du Lys 