Happy (day before) anniversary to me and my hubby! Since I don’t plan to post on the weekend, I decided instead to celebrate here today. As you can tell, it has been a long time. I will say there has been more good years than bad ones, and I’ve decided to keep him. Be sure to wish me many more. And yes, we were kids, 18 and 19. Young and stupid but smart enough to know the real thing. Yes, I write romances. HA!
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I’ve been thinking about about placing some excerpts of my books on Goodreads, but a few things came to mind. A few years ago, Sherrilyn Kenyon told me not to use the first chapter as an excerpt because people will open the book and think they’ve read it.
That is so true. If I want to make sure I haven’t already read a book, I always read the first few paragraphs. I wonder how many books I placed back on the shelf for that reason?
But, of course, the first scene is what I posted when I gave readers a taste of my fourth book in The Circle series. Hopefully you won’t forget and think you’ve already bought the book when I self-publish it next year. And the same is true about the first three books that are already available (published through Avon Red, HarperCollins) wherever books are sold on line.
*Excerpts* *Amazon* *B&N* *ARe* *BAM*
Anyway, my questions today are, do you prefer the first scene or chapter? Or do you like to see a scene or chapter from further into the book? Maybe in the middle of a turning point (e.g., an emotional scene)?
And do you like a page or two, or more like ten to fifteen to read?
Though I’m still wary about Amazon.com (they are taking over the world), they provide a neat service to authors (no matter who publishes your books). They have an area called Author Central where authors can sign in and look at info from BookScan. That service shows your sales of paperbacks throughout mainland U.S.A. I have a feeling it’s not totally accurate, but that’s okay. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know anything until I receive my royalties payments. So I’m happy to see something in the meanwhile.
The info doesn’t tell you what store or who buys the book. It can tell you what city it was sold in. I’m happy and tickled to no end that the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne love my books. They’ve sold the most. I have a feeling that either a book store bought them or a large book club. THANK YOU!!
It’s no surprise that the second largest sale was in Alabama. I do a lot of book signings there. THANK YOU!!
And the third is all due to my friends at FreshFiction.com. Yep, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area!
THANK YOU!!
One of the advantages of working at my day job is that I work with a lot of men. Those in my office and customers over the phone. I enjoy listening to the way they talk. I usually sit back, watch and listen to them. They’re so easy to get along with. When I was in high school, I always had as many boys who were friends as girls.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t understand them completely, but men are 90 percent of the reason I love to read and write romances. They claim they are simple creatures, give them sex and food and they’re happy. If only that was so simple, right? That would be like saying give women emotional support and shoes and they’re happy. NOT!
And it’s amazing how guys think if a woman is nice to them, the woman must be coming on to them. Silly boy, all of my lovers, save one (hubby), are in books (and those have my hubby’s face).
Anyway, to me, writing romances allow me to celebrate those differences that make them so interesting. Thank you, God, for making them different from women in all ways but one. Love. They can love just as hard and deep as any woman.
Carla Swafford, Author 