Vampire Authors chat > Likes and Comments
Are you saying I tell people off....LOLWe all know, that I would like more book and less sex. I think I even prefer one couple through all the books.
Good luck with this thread, Em!!
I'm not saying that at all Dee. I'm just saying I'm scared in case I do get told off. So I'm stopping that from happening, lol.I think I've only ever read one series that was the one couple through the whole series and that was not a vampire series. That was the Crossfire Series which I gave up in book three. You wouldn't like that Dee. If you thought my book had a lot of sex in it, that's nothing to this series. I gave up at book 3 as it was meant to be a trilogy and at the end of book three, lo and behold, Penguin had made it into a five book series. No wonder book three was rubbish.
So that, as they say was that.
Me, I'm working on book 2 of the Forsaken Blood Series and the first book of my paranormal school teachers series. That may end up being a series that is the same couple throughout with spin offs
Hi Em. I'm happy to chat about what I'm working on. I'm in the middle of a 5-book vampire series right now, the first two of which are published:Vampire's Revenge
Vampire's Betrayal
I literally just started typing the first chapter of the third novel, Vampire's Deception, yesterday!
As a reader, I'll try any author or series, but my weaknesses are for a sweet romance and a kick-a$$ female protagonist, best when found together.
How long have you been writing, Em?
Hi Em, Dee, Juliet.I'm working on the second vampire novel of a set which will be a trilogy. The first book The Binding was written as a stand alone book, but I've had an unexpected amount of requests to continue with the series, so I am working on that now, while I simultaneously prepare to release the final book in The Priestess and the Warrior trilogy.
As a reader I am quite the same as Juliet. I am a sucker for romance, and I like female protagonists that don't have to be saved. They save themselves.
Oh, Dee, until you mentioned it, I have never thought of it, but I can't think of any vampire series that follow the same couple either, at least not off the top of my head. Mine does, but I must admit...this wasn't intentional as I've never thought of it before.
I'm curious, for the writers, what made you decide to write in the vampire genre?
Hi Victoria, Juliet and Dee, So I started writing for publication under the pen name Krystal Brookes in 2012. That lasted about a year, then the kids at the school where I was a teacher of Religious Education found out that I wrote smutty romance novels and life became hell. I ditched Krystal. She was writing novellas about a Scottish island and a few short stories for anthologies. I then moved onto Regency romances which were quite successful and I was doing very well with them but then I got sick and I kind of lost my mojo. I also couldn't think of any more good stories so I stopped writing them. And that's not been great as they're still my best sellers.
But I had a book I had tried twice to write and I was determined to write. It was about Vampires who were not vampires by dint of being dead but by dint of being an alien species. And so I put in some effort and Discovered, the first book in the Forsaken Blood Series came to fruition. I'm writing book 2 now. I'm also writing a book about paranormal teachers. I've written a couple of contemporaries which have gone down well but they just aren't selling.
So that's me. I have a bunch of half-written books and I need to get my butt in gear.
Why vampires? It's hard to say for sure. I suppose I find the common mythology both familiar and compelling. These novels are my first, so it was nice not to have to build an entire set of fantastical beings from scratch. Obviously, I want the work to be my own, but being able to rely on elements readers would recognize -- drinking blood, living a long time, possessing supernatural strength and abilities, hiding away or segregated from human society -- was very helpful to me when it came to worldbuilding. Additionally, the complicated moral implications of drinking another unconsenting being's blood, I think, is very interesting for characters attempting to live in a modern world.Why vampires for you, Victoria?
Juliet: Why vampires for me? I have been working for several years on my trilogy, The Priestess and the Warrior. It spanned across several different time periods and cultures, and there were a pretty hefty group of characters. I could see the stories so clearly in my head and really wanted them to come out on paper, so I'd obsess about them like crazy. After I'd finished the 1st draft of the third book, I took a family/friend vacation to New Orleans and found myself on this fun vampire tour last one night in the Quarter. I was super amped up when we got back to the house we'd rented for the week, so I went outside with pen and paper and began writing what I called for over a year "my silly little vampire story."It was meant to be a short story, a sort of ode to the greats. (Oh, how I love vampire fiction.) And I NEVER intended to do anything with it. This story was for me. However, my short story very quickly became 400 pages, and my trips to New Orleans stopped becoming vacations but more of a every possible spare moment sort of thing. When I'd completed the story, I shared it with four people: my mother and three friends, who always read everything I write. They knew, as they settled in to read my love affair with New Orleans via the written word, that I had no intentions of doing anything with it.
I had already returned back to Avowal, that last book in my trilogy.
Then one day several weeks later--- all four people, though they live in totally different places and are not connected to each other, contacted me with a similar message. "You have to publish this book." I stewed on it for another book, before I buckled down with cleaning it up and finding a cover artist and such.
I kept thinking over and over that it's been done. I'm addicted to vampire novels. I couldn't wait to join this group to discover new books with vampires!!! What could I possibly have to add to the list of amazing writers????
Finally, after all that worrying and pacing, I just decided one day to do it.
Em: I need to get my butt in gear too. People keep asking me when I'm going to release Avowal, and it's totally ready. But I keep focusing on my vampires.
Hi everyone! It is interesting to hear what others are working on. It seems like several of us are working on some part of a series. :)I am in the middle of revising/editing book 3 of the War of Destiny series. At the moment, I am having trouble both finding time to work on and the inspiration/right frame of mind to do so.
As a reader, I have read a variety of things. I enjoy a good romance with some sex in it, but something that is all sex is a turn off. I don't read much YA anymore, but occasionally I still pick up one and still follow Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire/Thirst series. Mostly it seems I read Dresden and Indie/Small Press authors.
Why vampires? I'm not sure. It seemed to be the genre where I could work through my demons in disguise I guess.
Theresa: Did you know when you began that you were going to write a series? My book The Binding was supposed to be a stand alone novel, but I had so many requests to continue, and the characters wouldn't shut up anyway, that I dove right in and wrote some more. Alexa: Your enthusiasm has brightened my morning. Vampires Rule. I think that's going to be my slogan for the day. And you're right, when I first began writing The Binding, I had to really decide what sort of story I wanted to tell. Vampires are so diverse. Their myths span across every cultures taking on new forms as they go.
Em: I've been thinking about what happened while you wrote under the Krystal pen name. It's so horrid. I'm sorry that happened to you.
Hi Alexa, I had two iPads, a school one and a personal one. Both were in my bag. I had taken them out to look for something and one of the older pupils asked since she had finished her work could she play on my ipad for the last few minutes. Not thinking, I said yes. Neither ipad had a security code on it so she picked up my personal one and I hadn't closed down the tabs on safari and my twitter was up and it was obvious Krystal was me. I think she just told some of her friends, thinking it was funny but it got round the whole school and the younger ones were horrible about it. The school was in a tough area. They didn't really get that being published in any genre was pretty cool. It was just the idea that their overweight single teacher of religious education wrote about sex was hilarious to them, because obviously old fat people don't know about sex, far less have it.
I'm no longer in teaching and it's fine now. It was awful at the time. No parents made any complaints and the local authority said they would stand by me if they did.
As for why vampires. I got into Lynsay Sands books and I wanted my own take on vampires. I love sci fi so I knew I wanted my vampires to be vampires by dint of being a different species. Though I do write about undead ones too.
Victoria wrote: "Theresa: Did you know when you began that you were going to write a series? My book The Binding was supposed to be a stand alone novel, but I had so many requests to continue, and the characters wouldn't shut up..."Victoria, I knew there was going to be two or three books in the series. I am up to six, although a couple have different narrators. I wasn't expecting that, but kind of like your characters, mine won't shut up either. Occasionally they go dormant but they always start talking again.
Em and Alexa - it is amazing how varied vampires can be. It is pretty cool how you don't necessarily need to follow tradition. I drew a lot of my inspiration from Christopher Pike, although there are others that inspired me too.
It just amazes me. I mean I LOVE Vampires and yet, when I check the books I've read, there aren't that many involving vampires in the lot. Well, not as many as I'd wish at least.Em: That must have been awful. The moment you realize your mistake...I'm just glad you bounced back.
Alexa: I have to admit I've read quite a bit of zombie books. Or maybe not as many as I think but since they often end up just another story with different characters and places, it seems I've read too many. I don't regret the ones I've read though. Did your hubby read The Girl With All the Gift by Mike Carey (M.R. Carey I think here). You might like that one. It's different. :p
Victoria; I can't wait to read the third instalment of The Priestess and the Warrior! When is it coming out?
Why I like vampires? It's simple. With them everything goes. Sure there's the lore but it's still easy to go around it and create our own. It's all left to the imagination of the writer, which is limitless! :)
That is why I recommended you try the book I mentioned. Totally different. While being a zombie, Melanie is closer to a vampire than any other I've read. Maybe the best cross-over. We also watch anything zombies or vampires in this house. The only reason I have seen Twilight is because the hubby bought the first DVD and continued with the others until I showed no interest anymore. (Sorry but the baby thing wasn't my favorite, Vampire or not). But The vampire diary, True Blood, Moonlight, Blood Ties, Buffy and many more, we all devoured these series and are always looking for more. :)
haha I don't blame you a bit. I was actually surprised the hubby continued with the few next movies. I can't say I was mad when he finally gave up on it. His excuse was that he thought I wanted to see it. Sure, blame it on me after I repeatedly told him I didn't like it. :/ Actually the movie Vampire Suck (parody of Twilight) was much better... :P
GG: Avowal is mostly ready to go. I still would like to give it another read through and have a few of my friends read through it as well to learn from any of those horrid, weird grammatical mistakes I seem to miss when I'm editing my own work. If you really can't wait, shoot me an email. Your feedback is always critical to my finished projects. P.S. speaking of writing: how is Alex? I miss him.
Hey everyone, I'm back. I need to get stuck in now that London is over. I also need to work out a marketing strategy and get that going. It needs to be cheap and cheerful as I don't have any money. So if anyone has any good ideas, let me know. I can't get this book to sell despite good reviews. I did a blog tour way back when it released but it didn't get much traction.
Em wrote: "Hey everyone, I'm back. I need to get stuck in now that London is over. I also need to work out a marketing strategy and get that going. It needs to be cheap and cheerful as I don't have any money...."Social media is the most obvious option for marketing on the cheap, but I personally haven't seen results from Twitter/FB (I tracked links, got maybe 100 people who clicked them in a month and 5 of those downloaded a book). Note that this is all from promoting my 1st-in-series that is free. If I can't give away a book using social media, I don't think I'm going to have any luck selling it! I have moved several hundred copies of the book in the past month (again, it's free, so it's a different strategy), but it's all been from Amazon's organic search.
I know some authors who use Facebook ads. I haven't tried them myself. If you could get them to convert to sales at a higher rate than they would cost, it would obviously be worth it. It might be worth a small experiment, say run ads for $5 a day for a week or something, just to see. If they don't convert, then kill 'em.
I'm not sure where else your book is published besides Amazon, but if it's not selling anywhere you could take it down from non-Amazon sites and try Kindle Unlimited.
Last thing, somewhat related -- I think the url to your website (http://romanticregency.weebly.com) is broken on Goodreads. I tried to visit and got 404.
As a reader.....I get almost all of my book ideas from groups on goodreads. I hate the new Amazon recommendations. Look at me, seems I hate all new things. Once I buy a book on Amazon, I will then look at what supposedly other people have bought. I think just joining and participating in a group can get your book out there. We have an author on here and I won't read her book at all because she just stops by once a month, makes a new post and that's it. I have too much other stuff to read.
There...my two cents!!
Oh I agree that just spamming your book is the best way to get people NOT to check it out. It's the best disservice you can do to yourself. On the other hand, I have read many books from authors I have interacted with on GR. My philosophy on this? Why would I give a second look at an author who is only here to 'bookwhack' when there are so many other great books from nicer authors? (And even at that, I know I won't have time to read them all. :( )
Now, do FB and Twitter work for selling books? Honestly? I don't know. I'm not on these platforms to promote my books. I'm there so if someone wants to find me, they can. Sure, I will advertise if I have a sale, but I also advertise other authors' sales as much as I can, without turning my page into spam. I may never make it as an author and maybe I shouldn't say that but I don't mind. I have made friends and that is so much more valuable in my eyes.
I agree with everything that's been said. I have a lot of empathy for other authors, but "shilling" gives us all a bad name. My guess is that many authors do it because they don't realize that it doesn't work.
I was actually making good money as a regency author. I wish I could drag myself back to it because they are my only books that still sell but I don't have any decent stories in my head at present. I have bits of stories and the characters aren't terribly rounded. I want to survive as an author as given my health it's something I can manage to do and my health doesn't suffer because of it. But the funny thing is my contemporary and one vampire book have much better reviews but don't sell and the regency books are still selling though a lot less now.All my books were taken off Amazon KDP because it wasn't going anywhere. I moved to Apple and kobo and Nook. I had an initial increase but it's slumped too.
GG, you've made such a good point. Some of my closest friends are people I've met on forums. and such. And I'd not trade those for all the book sales in the world. I agree with the others about social media as well. I've not seen much increase in sales via that channel. I did however have a boost when I ran an add through Amazon. I set the price so it didn't get out of hand, and also so that I could see if I'd actually made a profit. I did, but only as long as the ad ran.
I want to survive as an author too, so I'm looking for creative ways to promote my books as well.
Some of my best friends are people I've met through my writing and often through social media. But it's getting books out to a wider audience that's the issue. It's finding the balance I think between head down and getting the books written, being sociable and doing actual marketing. I don't think amazon will run my ads. Too much sex in my books. Which is ironic that they'll advertise 50 Shades of how to abuse your girlfriend all over their pages, which has way more sex in it than my book but somehow is deemed appropriate for viewing by under 18s because society has deemed it so. Same with facebook ads. Even if I target it to over 21s only. It's mad. I'm going to start a blog. I've decided twitter doesn't work. it would work if I could find people to actually chat to on Twitter but the only people I know on there just want to post ads for their books and I don't ever look at them so I can't see other people being interested in that. Decent vampire book chat might work.
I was having a bad day yesterday. Sales are still rubbish but I'm more positive today. I just need to write write write. Get it all out of my system. I've been doing some housework too. Once I get myself a new job too I'll feel better too.
Hey Em. When I am really in a slump or am worried about book sales (always) I do the same. I write, write, write, and then write some more. Hope you are feeling better now.
Hi Victoria. I'm doing that. I've got a Highland romance coming out. I took books that were not selling on other sales channels back off and put them back on KDP and put one onto free today. It's got the first three chapters of my vampire book on it so I hope to push some interest in that. Then I have a few more books to really get stuck into. Write write writing is the way to go though. :D
Ooh, a Highland romance! I live one of those in my mind constantly. :)I recently took my books off other sales channels as well and put them back on KDP. I seem to get better results that way.
Sending you hugs and good writing vibes!
I had a big boost when I first went on to the other sales channels then they frittered away. But only on the regencies, not on the contemporaries on vampire books. Odd that. I haven't moved the regencies yet but I'm kind of tempted. it's so hard to decide what's the best thing to do.
Em wrote: "dd that. I haven't moved the regencies yet but I'm kind of tempted. it's so hard to decide what's the best thing to do. .."I've heard a lot of conflicting advice on what is the best way to get your books out to the masses and how and where to promote. Quite honestly, I haven't figured out any good way to do it either. Occasionally something seems to work, but it is short-lived and rarely repeatable. My books are on KDP, but I cannot say it has done any good. I've been considering other channels myself. I'm not sure what to do either.
It used to be that if you had free days you had thousands of downloads. I'm in the middle of a 5 day free day promo on Amazon and I've had 80. Amazon no longer promote you inless you pay which is rubbish.
Em wrote: "It used to be that if you had free days you had thousands of downloads. I'm in the middle of a 5 day free day promo on Amazon and I've had 80. Amazon no longer promote you inless you pay which is r..."Ahh. I've heard that Amazon had redone their promotions to something like that. I haven't had a free promotion for awhile, but when I did my 99 cent one I seemed to get readers interested by announcing it here and on certain Facebook groups. Perhaps you can try that next time. I hope the sale went well overall.
I've noticed that as well with Amazon. When I paid for their marketing,there was an increase in sales---but honestly, not so much that I keep paying for the service.Em, did your downloads go up?
No they didn't really but my friend and I are working on a marketing plan. We have lots in the pipeline. We're working on getting my reviews up and getting word out to blogs and getting them to push my books.
If you have any ideas that might help other authors, please share. And also, if there is a way I can help you, let me know. I'd love to help you get the word out!
She's mainly getting friends to review my books and getting me into Facebook events etc. We're doing a signing in December so we were talking about organising swag I could actually sell. I am getting a logo designed for my series. It will basically just me like a stamp and I'm going to use that on everything. But the series is called Stetsons and Kilts so we're theming everything. LED cowboy hats. Charm bracelets with scottish and cowboy charms both of which can be sold. I have a street team. i'm giving them daily tasks and they're going to do something each day and be entered into a weekly draw to win swag or free books and stuff.
Oh, that's a great idea. My street team are champions. I swear they jump on any task I give them. I love the swag idea. I have to confess I feel like I missing a lot with these Facebook events. I live in an extremely rural area, so once I leave work my access to the internet virtually disappears. With my vampire series, there is an amulet that is heavily featured, so while I was trying to think of something fun and original to both use in giveaways and also to sell, I came up with a crafty way to recreate the necklace. So far, they have been a big hit. I don't want to make too many of them, but I'm hoping to give away bookmarks with the logo I'm still currently designing and the amulet attached. (Maybe that will keep me and my books in the person's memory after they walk away.)
read the tips on getting people to follow you on goodreads and how to then interact with goodreads to keep them entertained. I think we should start a vampire posse on Twitter just chatting about stuff. it would draw people in.
Ooh, a vampire posse on Twitter is a great idea! I have read the tips and such before, I think it's time for a refresher course. Thanks for the reminder, Em.
Yeah, I think we need to get that up and running if we can. I seriously need to get some kind of traction on these books. After days of pimping my sorry ass round facebook, nada.
Em wrote: "Hey everyone, I'm back. I need to get stuck in now that London is over. I also need to work out a marketing strategy and get that going. It needs to be cheap and cheerful as I don't have any money...."Gosh, I've been away from this group for far too long! What a wonderful thread, Em.
As to cheap (or even free) marketing:
1/ I recently added one of my books to bookhippo.co.uk. They will promote your book and don't charge a fee. I had 20 sales just from that. I'll definitely use them again.
2/ Multi-author promos are a fantastic way of gaining sales. The only cost to you is promoting it on social media. There are quite a lot of threads about this on kboards.
3/ I'm in day three of a free trial with Instafreebie, which I'm using to boost my mailing list. I haven't really promoted the two books that I've popped on Instafreebie, but have gained 26 new subscribers. I'm going to be part of a couple of 'group' instafreebies in the next month that Instrafreebie will promote, so likely the number of subscribers will increase significantly (I hope).
I struggle when it comes to interacting with 'real' people, even via social media. I'm an introvert, and socially awkward to boot! I wish someone else could do the marketing/interacting for me and I could focus purely on the writing.
I've been a vamp lover since I was little. I remember being terribly frightened by vampires, yet fascinated by them at the same time. I don't like vampires that glitter though. That's just a bit much for me. However, I do like the idea of vampires 'evolving'.
Book four in my Angel Series--Angel's Body--is with the editor now. I'm working on book five--Angel's Demon--while I'm waiting for AB to come back from the editor. My protagonist is a hybrid--part vampire, part earth-bound angel. She feeds on vampires, and likes to think of herself as more angel than vampire.
I recently finished work on a vampire-themed children's picture book called Lucy Vampoosy: The Little Vampire Dog. The proof copy of the paperback arrived last week and I'm thrilled with how it's turned out. Technically it's ready to go live now, but I (selfishly) wanted to release a book on my birthday as it's a milestone year for me. And this book is one I will cherish (it's based on one of my dogs, whose nickname is Lucy Vampoosy), so I'm holding off until late November to release it. Here's the cover for it:
Oh, and Amazon wouldn't let me run an ad on my first book--Angel's Kiss--because there is blood on the cover. They're not so fussed about content, but they're really strict on covers.
Instafreebie - for anyone interested in checking them out. You'll gain subscribers (if you have a mailing list), even if you only sign-up for the free trial.
Alexa wrote: "Do you have a professional editor? I noticed that BookHippo doesn't "feature" your work if you don't. If you don't have an editor, do you find that to be an obstacle?"
I do have a professional editor, though she doesn't have a website, so I simply entered 'N/A' for the editor's URL. (I'm wondering if you could enter any name and get away with it?)
Hi Melanie and Alexa, Never heard of bookhippo Melanie. Will definitely check it out
I use Instafreebie but only to give out free gifts and review copies etc so far. Must check out the mailing list bit.
I do have a professional editor. Although I don't know how they check. It's not like there's a guild or anything is there?
Hi Em,I think BookHippo may rely on the honesty system. After all, it would be a lot of work to check a good many of the editors, particularly if they don't have a website (as with mine) or aren't a member of an international guild.
PS I now have 35 new subscribers via Instafreebie.
That makes sense. My editor doesn't do a lot of editing these days and mainly edits for friends but I met her when she edited for the publisher I wrote for. So she definitely diesn't have a webpage or anything. I've been using a bunch if free sites, blogs, the romance reviews, I dud a coupke of facebook takeovers, but even with the book reduced it hasn't garnered any sales. That said it is getting my name out there so it's something.
Thought I'd say hello... I've just joined Goodreads in the hope of getting some ideas for marketing my vampire book. It sounds from this thread as though it might be more difficult than I was hoping, but such is life I suppose!I'm going to reply to a few things from way back in the thread, as I'm new:
Victoria, you asked why people wrote in the vampire genre, and there's a funny story about that with me. A few years ago there seemed to be lots of 'vampires with a conscience' who didn't bite humans. That idea isn't exactly new, but there seemed to be a lot of them at that time, perhaps starting with Angel and eventually coming to a climax with Twilight.
I loved the idea of vampires with a conscience, but (twisted as I am) I wanted to force them to bite people and kill them!
G.G. mentioned Vampires Suck. I wondered if anyone else had seen My Babysitter's a Vampire. It's pretty silly but I found it hilarious.
Anyone have a suggestion for a good vampire read with humor?
I just thought it would be nice to have a place where we could mention our own books and not worry about being told off for promoting our books since we're in the promo zone anyway. Readers, you know we'll be talking about what we are writing/ have written so you know what you're getting in here.
So I'll start with a question. What's everyone working on? For readers, what kind of books would you like to see?