The Nexus discussion

a place to talk to or ask each other questions

Who are the authors or aspiring authors of this group
I'll start
Thomas Wilson I'm one

Kristine Cayne :)

Anna here!!!

I am.

Justin Bienvenue :)

I am a romance author...
Rachelle Vaughn

So of our Authors
'
How many books have you written and what Genre?

For me (2) Science Fiction Action Adventure
Some say my first one is a love story - it was an accident.
Thomas

I'm here. I'm a journalist so I write non-fiction stories about real people and real issues. I've written three memoirs and two social commentary books.

Ron Wyn...present...

irregular therapy. genre: surprise me...book one published and more to come (hopefully before the world ends)!

Hi, I'm H.A Caine and I've only self published my works :) here's a list of them and their status

From Love and Pain available on smashwords

Second Time Around releasing on smashwords in May/June for Free

Letting Go (Boys in Love BK. 1) not yet released

The Call (Boys in Love 1.5) free short taken down until Letting Go is released

All my books are M/M Romance

Tana--you're awesome. What a great idea for a thread. I'm Diane and my book is Black Oil, Red Blood, put out by a small press. In my day job I'm a marketing director. Used to be a lawyer. Would rather be a novelist. Trying to figure out how to sell books! Would love to hear what has been working or not working for you guys!

If you want to guest post on www.thebookmarketingblog.com about your book selling experiences, I'm happy to take submissions. Or, if you'd like me to feature you in the author's section, just shoot me an email at diane@blackoilredblood.com.

I'm one. My debut novel will be released in January 2013. :)

Diane wrote: "Tana--you're awesome. What a great idea for a thread. I'm Diane and my book is Black Oil, Red Blood, put out by a small press. In my day job I'm a marketing director. Used to be a l..."

I honestly think just bein on goodreads is the smartest move. Talking with the readers and becoming friends with them, really helps to sell your books :)

Wow, good to know! Thanks, H.A!

Np :)

Yes H.A. is right I think the more interaction you have on here with the members and other authors is one important step. Many of us our bloggers also so hang out and get to know everyone.

And any new authors go check out making connection group its has a lot of threads for authors too. its part of this group.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/6...

I am still kicking, also. I am about to give birth to my fourth baby on Amazon Kindle. I am thrilled, but I am also sad. A large part of me, the past few months, has focused on this birth. I will miss working with him/her. DEADLY EYES will find a new home alongside his siblings on my Amazon site. I am happy to be his father, and I am proud to be one with all of you.
Mike
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005E7M8CW

Thanks Tana! Congratulations Mike!

I have one PNR/UF book out and I'm working on my second. The new one is coming along very slowly because I'm in the middle of the semester at school. I'd rather be writing and marketing full time.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Hi all. I tend to be more of a lurker but thought I'd jump in. I'm Lynn Tyler and I write erotic romance with Siren BookStrand. I have 2 out right now (Be With Us and SHI Guy) and a third coming out at the end of this month.

I'm going to try and be more social, so I look forward to getting to know you all.

thats great Lynn glad you joined us. Welcome

I'm Eric Edstrom. I've been away from Goodreads due to writing another book :)

Hi guys. I'm a civil servant by day, father and author by night. Apart from having severe sleep deprivation, I'm afflicted by an incurable impulse to write. I've tried everything to kick the habit but to no avail. Ho hum...

Jake West: The Keeper of the Stones
Jake West - Warriors of the Heynai

Hi, everyone. I'm fairly new here as well. Still finding my way around, but I'm getting there. Good thing I brought a flashlight, stumbling around the dark is scary. :)

Thriller: Velvet Rain

S.L.J. Shortt author of Blood Heavy - YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

Hi =)

The Macabre Masterpiece: Poems of Horror and Gore

Facebook Fanpage- http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mac...

I'm a fairly new indie author myself. I've only published one book thus far with two more in the works.
Lost Princess: The Journey Home

Hi there!

I published a book in 2011 so I guess that makes me an author :b. So I'm 16 years old and I hope I'll publish more books ( in fact I'm working on three right now), as I'm still young :b.

The book I published is in Portuguese ( I'm Portuguese) but the description is at english as well.

Hi all. I published a Fantasy Romance back in 2003 in print with a small publisher who has since gone out of business. I then had it with another small publisher who got bought out by a medium publisher, who then sat on it (and everything from that small one) for two years while simultaneously failing to pay in-print authors their royalties. So much fun...not.

So this year I declared I was sick of small press hell and went indie. I just released Finding Gaia and I'm working on the promotion part now.

I'm also trying to not be spammy about it on Goodreads, so I'd appreciate tips anyone has on how to get noticed without making anyone angry. I'm participating in a few groups as just me already, but there's only so much time in the day and social time does take away from writing time...

Harold Titus, retired teacher, author of a Revolutionary War historical novel published last September by POD booklocker.com. The past 10 months have been instructive and unique.

I just saw it up for review on Making Connections, didn't I? That's a good place to start. But Goodreads is an awesome group. They're wonderful to new authors.

How does everyone feel about an Author who has no one genre he/she write about but rather a bunch of different ones? While I have not really looked into this and I can think of a few I am wonder because I am on the verge of becoming one of these Authors. While I wrote a book of horror poetry and my next book is horror I am by no means going to be considered a horror author but will be coming out will entirely different genres. I of course will still be writing poetry so I would say I'd be considered more of a Poet then any one specific genre author. Do people enjoy an author who likes to shake it up and write about different things?

This is just my opinion, but I think it's hard enough to get readers to "find" you, so when they do, it's because they like something you wrote and they'll look for more of that. And they'll want more of the same style and voice...and genre. Some readers even want series instead of stand alone books, so that they get more of the characters they love. When you're starting out, I think it's smarter to stick to one genre (if that's what you like and readers like it). I love Patricia Briggs' urban fantasy novels. Would I follow her if she wrote high fantasy? I'm not sure. Another thing to consider, I think you get better as a writer if you hone your skills in the genre you love most and read lots of authors in that genre so that you learn more. But there are no set rules in writing. Every writer has to do what works for him.

I just published my first MANfiction novel last year, and I hope to have my second novel in the series out sometime next year.

Justin wrote: "How does everyone feel about an Author who has no one genre he/she write about but rather a bunch of different ones? While I have not really looked into this and I can think of a few I am wonder be..."

I agree with Judith, and you certainly need to do what works best for you. However, you may want to establish yourself in one genre (at least a few books) before you move on to other genres, otherwise you might give your fanbase, or potential fanbase, whiplash.

The genre question comes down ultimately to deciding why you're writing: is it to make a living, or an act of artistic creation that would be nice if it made a few bucks for you?

If you're going for the full living aspect, conventional wisdom is that you have to limit yourself by genre. An agent/publisher will pretty much demand that. It's why big names in one genre often have a nom de plume in a separate one (think Stephen King/Richard Bachman). As Judith and Robert both said, readers will come to expect a certain sort of thing from you and if they are disappointed because they happen to not like the other genre, you might lose them entirely.

But the second model grants more freedom, particularly to indie authors. You still don't want to go crazy with it: nobody's going to read a ridiculous mishmash that makes no sense. But if you're indie and you accept that it'll never be a bestseller, you should go ahead and break genre lines.

I've been small-press published and now I've gone indie, in part because of genre issues. My first novel was a made-up world in medieval-style with no magic, so it was fantasy, but some people get mad if there's no magic with that label. It also had a love story with sex scenes, so that made it fantasy-romance, but that category turns off a significant number of people, particularly men.

My second would be sci-fi/speculative/police procedural/romance.

My third, which I just released indie, is technically paranormal romance or contemporary fantasy, again, depending on definitions. It has a central love story between immortals, but they're not vampires, which means some PNR folks won't be interested, and because it has that label, some people who will assume it's full of sparkly vampires won't be interested. I prefer to think of it as real-world-superhero love story, but there's no category for that.

I think indie authors should feel free to explore new combinations, or break out of the formulae for established genres. But they have to be realistic and accept that it's harder to market things that way. I'm having a hell of a time, even with positive reviews, because my market isn't a pre-defined demographic.

Well I'll break it down for you like this. My first book is Horror Poetry and my next two books, one is going to be another poetry book while the other is going to be a horror book. So I'm doing both so I don't really loose people. Those who liked the poetry aspect of it can go for the poetry book and those who enjoyed the Horror aspect can read the horror book and for those who are a fan of me can read both. Eh eh? I think it's pretty good, good balance

Sounds like a plan. Good luck with both.

Hi fellow scribblers,

I'm working on a short story for Absolom Rex: At Ages End in which I am making the attempt to integrate a Noir style with an ancient city environment. I originally started out using a more contemporary and traditional tone and voice for the narration, but I slipped back into the voice I have normally used for Absolom. I need some opinions on which works better.

Let me know what you think regarding what you read on the link below:

http://klcoones.com/aee-snippet/

Thanks all for your contributions!

I went to your blog, but only saw the Noir version, no contemporary one, so can't compare them. I think the older writing style works since the story takes place far in the past, but I think one more polish would make the story even better. A few things felt rushed. An interesting setting, though, and an intriguing combination of a vampire (?) and a monk (?).

Hi all. My name is Nicole Smith and I have one short story and one novel up on amazon. I am currently focused on the romance genre. At some point I may branch out into paranormal romance, but not yet.

Love On Loan

K.L. wrote: "Hi fellow scribblers,

I'm working on a short story for Absolom Rex: At Ages End in which I am making the attempt to integrate a Noir style with an ancient city environment. I originally started ou..."

@Judith. Whatever I thought was going on in the text must be going on in my own noggin. So far three ppl have looked at it and haven't noticed the change I was thinking was there.

Thanks for taking a look at it Judith. I appreciate your time. =)

Kimberly wrote: "The genre question comes down ultimately to deciding why you're writing: is it to make a living, or an act of artistic creation that would be nice if it made a few bucks for you?

If you're going f..."

I wholly agree with your point of view. I, too, do not write genre and consequently have had a hard time getting any of my fiction published. I finally turned to self publishing, but even so you still have to categorize the novel. Like you, my debut novel is set in a "fantasy" world with very little fantasy, and because it is first and foremost, a love story, I had to put it into the romance genre. My next novel is more of a psychological suspense thriller, yet also with a "dark fantasy" theme. I've had good feedback on my first book, but I know I do this for me, not for the money. I've loved to write all my life, and if I can share my stories with a few others, great! I'd probably enjoy reading your first novel.

I am a respiring author. It was either doing this or being a drug mule. But my gag reflex was too strong.

Hi everyone. My name is Eloise Kindred and I'm the author of a horror novel called "Hell's Paradise". It's currently available on Kindle, Kobo and Smashwords. I'm currently working on a YA series about a teenage witch living in Salem.

Scott here aka, SS Matthews. Historical horror is mostly my thing. I have a pair of Rowan (Were)Wolfe novels out there and I'm finishing up a rewrite on a NaNoWriMo project called A Season of Wolves. I do a lot of poetry on my blog @ wordpress, some short stories and serial fiction too. I hope to get to know many of you in the days ahead.

Just found this thread. Thanks! I'm a fiction author with my first novel coming out this year. My editor would categorize my stuff as Women's Fiction. I guess it's like chick lit with a sarcastic edge :-/ Anyway, nice to meet you all!

Hi, Everyone

I'm Groovy. Just joined this thread. I'm a wholesome romance and suspense author. My books are available on Kindle Amazon.

Also, I have a new romantic/suspense coming out this fall. I'm so excited.

Thanks!

I'm an action/thriller/crime writer. So far I've got three big works under my belt, with plenty more planned projects on the way. Send me a friend request if you like. :) Friends are nice to have.