Book Brief: Hot Pursuit 1

hot_pursuitHot Pursuit 1
by Jennifer Zane
Genre: Romantic Suspense
36,000 words

A fun weekend at a friend’s wedding in Denver takes a bizarre twist for Anna Scott when her rental car is pulled over due to an “anonymous tip.” In her trunk…one dead body linked to warring crime families. It should be easy for an innocent woman to be cleared of an random mix-up. But was it? The police aren’t so sure, and neither is the crime boss who wants vengeance for his son-in-law’s death.

Jake Griffin is playing a dangerous game, having spent the last few months undercover in the Moretti crime family. Moretti assigns him to find out who Anna Scott is, what she wants, and to kill her if she’s a threat. Jake needs to focus on taking down Moretti, but he can’t stop thinking about Anna, nor can he stop taking dangerous chances where she’s concerned. The most dangerous of all might be trusting her with the truth.

Hot Pursuit 1 is available through Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

Continue reading “Book Brief: Hot Pursuit 1”

Createspace Like Fest

createspace logoAh, the print book. I do love Createspace.  You can create discount coupons for your books there. But you should never use Createspace to format an eBook. How about we forget about eBooks for a while and have a Createspace Print Book Page Like-fest!

This is how it works: If you are an author with a book listed on Createspace.com, in the comments below, write a SHORT one sentence blurb about ONE of your books, then paste in the link to that book below it. (If you post more than one book, to be fair to everyone else, we will delete all except for the top link, so please behave and post only ONE book!) Make sure you show some love to the links in the comments above yours, and check back throughout the day to catch up.  If you’re a publisher, editor, or reader, please check out these book pages – you may see something you like! (BTW, liking a book on Createspace WILL show up in your FB feed. If you don’t want it there, you’ll need to go into Facebook and manually remove it from your wall.)

There is always some confusion as to which link to use when sharing a book. The diagram below will show you how to find your book’s page. Make sure if you use the search tool that you are searching in the STORE and not the site.

finding your book in the createspace store
Click to Enlarge

[Don’t forget, if you right-click the links, you can choose to have them open in a separate tab so you don’t have to worry about navigating back and forth to pages.]

This should be fun and should generate a lot of likes for everyone’s books. Let’s get things moving – and here’s a book to get you started:  http://www.createspace.com/4954934 PLEASE do not post erotica titles. IU is a safe-for-work site.

To those with concerns about the ethical implications of “liking” a book you have not read, we regard  likes as more analogous to a “high five” than a rating or review. We do not support the idea of rating or reviewing a book you have never read. If you’re concerned that people will think you are endorsing someone else’s book, you can always just write something like “hey, my friend’s book is on Createspace.”

Marketing Uses for Book Covers

Once you’re got your excellent kick-ass book cover, what do you do with it beside plaster it all over your blog and Facebook page? Believe me, there are plenty of fun ways to use it for promotion, marketing, and just plain getting attention.

Magnets

book cover e-magnetsMake business card-sized magnets and give them away at your next function. You can buy sticky-backed magnets from Amazon or any office store, print your book covers on card stock and stick them on. (Or Avery makes printable pre-scored business card sized magnets.) You can also buy full-sized sheets of thin magnet “paper” (available from Avery, Staples, and other manufacturers) that will go through your printer. You can make the magnets any size you wish, then just cut them out with scissors. The strength of this magnet paper is not as strong as the business card model, but it will definitely stick to a refrigerator. In the picture at left, the larger ones are business card-sized while the smaller ones are cut from the full sheet.

If you’re not into DIY, you can also have custom magnets made up by many online companies like Vistaprint. (See our Book Cover Resource page for links to all these items.) Continue reading “Marketing Uses for Book Covers”

Book Brief: Mister Darcy’s Dogs

Mister Darcy's DogsMister Darcy’s Dogs
by Barbara Silkstone
Genre: Contemporary Humor, Satire
25,500 words

Doctor Lizzie Bennet, struggling against her conservative English countryside upbringing, determines to prove her worth as a dog psychologist. Nothing will deter her from her career until she meets the uppity and oh-so mysterious Londoner, Mister Darcy. His on-again, off-again flirtatious manner and his pompous putdowns challenge Lizzie’s short temper. When Mister Darcy hires her to train his lovable basset hounds for an important foxhunt, Lizzie accepts the task despite knowing next to nothing about the sport and harboring an intense fear of horses.

Will Lizzie keep her focus or succumb to her fate?

Mister Darcy’s Dogs: A Pride and Prejudice Contemporary Novella is available from Amazon and Amazon UK. Continue reading “Book Brief: Mister Darcy’s Dogs”