Being a writer—no, being a successful writer—isn’t only about getting words on pages. I wish it worked that way, but in the real world, or at least for the independently published authors…
We write a book
We scrounge for cover art to hand to the cover artist
We look for decent editors (or in my case since I am an editor, good beta readers to find my errors)
We pay or learn to format our books ourselves
We upload the books on all the platforms where people buy books
And then…we try to figure out how to get people to notice our book amid the millions of books available on all those platforms.
And that’s where you can really fall down that rabbit hole and waste an inordinate amount of time while you try to figure out what works.
I have a website. That’s a must for authors—the first order of business for any author.
I have a blog. Now, authors say blogs are dead, but I think mine does okay. See the number of folks on the left who get this daily post mailed straight to their inbox? I choose to continue this blog because it serves as my “face” to the real world out there. I talk about what’s real in my life. I talk about my books. I invite other authors to come to talk about their lives and their books. It’s a friendly place. But as an author, I have to do so much more.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… Gah. How can I be in all places at all times? Simply put, I can’t. And I do not want to pay someone to manage my social media, even though I’ve seen some authors who have the right support do very, very well. You see, I tried it, but it was work managing that support and I don’t really want anything more on my plate. I’ll do the occasional Facebook and Amazon ad and call it done.
And then my dd offered to do something for me.
She noticed all those lovely, luscious book memes on Instagram and Facebook and wondered why I wasn’t doing them. I told her flat out I didn’t have the time or the talent. Since she’s got online school to supervise every day and has to sit in the livingroom or dining room with the kids anyway, and it doesn’t take up every second of her time, she said she’d give it a shot. It looked like fun to her. Fun?! Of course, I worried about what those ads might look like because her taste and mine are not the same, and she doesn’t read romance, doesn’t get the genre at all.
But hey. She wanted to help.
So, for a little over a month now, I give her a cover and maybe a snippet about the book or a piece of an Amazon customer’s review and off she goes.
I told her donuts and the color pink feature in my latest release, Preacher…
And I thought, That’s alright. At least people will stop and look.
And then she saw my cover for my next release, Hardman, and asked whether I had more art with this guy because she said he was hot! This one’s simple. Stark. Sexy. I like it!
And she’s only gotten better. I wanted her to go back and do memes for books I already have out there but folks might have forgotten exist or had no idea they existed…
I had this Texas Cowboy story about a wild-child judge’s daughter who gets caught going Lady Godiva on a motorcycle by a pair of Dom deputies… She found this art!
The story that followed was about a schoolteacher voyeur spying on a deputy’s playroom. This one’s just too cute!
When she put all the Texas Cowboys together, she did this and I snorted with laughter.
My favorites so far? I love, love the biker girl and voyeur girl, but I love this one too!
And has it helped? I really think so. When I look at my sales on Amazon, there are more of my older titles selling, so I’m going to keep her employed for the longterm doing my memes. She’s becoming a goddess (and a godsend—just one more thing I don’t have to worry about)!
What do you think? And which is your favorite image from the ones I provided. Comment for a chance to win a backlisted title of your choice!
UPDATE: The winners are…Misty, AnnaMarie, and Jennifer Beyer!
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Before I wrote bounty hunters, I wrote about vampires…
Answer me this for a chance to win your choice from among my many Night Fall titles!Â
Bounty Hunters or Vamps and Werewolves?
P. S. And be sure to check out the list of open contests you still have time to enter at the bottom of this post!
Wolf in Plain Sight
“A wickedly funny and passionate series, fans of paranormal erotic romance will enjoy [Wolf in Plain Sight] tremendously. Ms. Devlin has done it again!” ~ Romance Reviews Today
To Super-cop Max Weir, the only good vampire is a dead one. Since his special police unit integrated with vampires, he’s had to suppress his natural hatred to work side by side with the undead to hunt down and terminate the deadliest killers. Now the unit’s hot on the trail of a new menace in town, a pack of werewolves prowling for vampires who don’t care whether humans get in their way.
When a stakeout goes awry, Max enters a bar looking for a fight or woman to help him blow off a little steam. What he finds is a winsome siren whose sexual appetites match his own.
Vampire Pia D’Amato is on a secret mission to take out Max–either by seduction or turning him. He’s become a liability to the Masters’ Council setting up jurisdiction in southern Florida, and she’s not leaving until she’s done the job. But Max is more man than she bargained for with a deadly secret of his own.
Excerpt from Wolf in Plain Sight…
Max pushed through the door of the bar determined that tonight he’d either get shit-faced or fucked. Which, didn’t matter so long as he could blow off the steam that had been gathering a head since the botched mission hours before. The bar was a regular haunt—only a block from his house. If need be, he could crawl home. The smoky air, the loud grinding music, and the smell of stale beer appealed when he had an axe to grind.
The SU had swept the area for signs of the wolves that killed the vampires before turning on the humans in a mutilating frenzy. Their bloody paw prints lead beyond the house to a gravel road where they’d disappeared. The pack had made their getaway in cars. This hadn’t been a roaming band’s target of opportunity, but a takedown.
The grim faces of the vampires telegraphed their worry. He hoped they were shaking in their boots. Not that the thought of a rogue wolf pack wasn’t just as unsettling to Max.
But seeing the cock-sure Quentin lose his perpetual smirk was gratifying. Dylan had been grim-faced and pale. Perhaps the bastard saw his own fate in the house.
However, Joe’s silence had been the most telling. He hadn’t looked the least bit surprised.
Max made his way through the tables ringing a small dance floor. The place was nearly empty, save for the men hovering near the bar for the night’s last drinks. The tension in his shoulders knotted tighter. All it would take would be one smart-ass comment. He hungered for an excuse to drive his fist through something.
The crowd parted, and a flash of a slim white ankle snagged his attention. Every trace of anger, bitter regret, and frustration coalesced into a single, burning need.
The men blocking his view shifted, and the ankle drew his glance upward to a bare knee. The woman’s legs parted, and one slid atop the other. Her foot sawed up and down, and a slender, functionless sandal dangled from the tips of her painted toes. God, he wanted to help her lose the shoes altogether.
He advanced toward the men standing between him and his goal. Their faces registered annoyance for only a moment before they stepped aside. The hard hunger that rode his belly must have turned his face into an implacable mask.
As he drew near, her shape was revealed one tantalizing curve at a time. Sweetly turned hips were clothed in a stretchy black skirt that ended at the top of her thighs—not a hint of underwear marred the smooth fit. Conveniently tied behind her neck, a miniscule top bared the gleaming, supple skin of her back and midriff—again, no sign of a bra. Her nipples puckered invitingly against the black fabric that barely contained the apple-like curves of her small breasts.
Finally, his gaze rose to her face. She could have been a whole lot less than appetizing, and he’d still have wanted her on the merits of that ride-able frame. But her face only made him more determined to have her.
Large, doe-like eyes, framed by thick lashes, blinked as she caught his stare. Her upper lip was a fraction fuller than the lower and inspired delicious, succulent fantasies. Her face was round, her jaw small, and a thumbprint dimple carved her chin into two delicious halves. His tongue itched to slide along that little notch.
As he reached the bar, he drew a deep breath, eager to catch the scent of her perfume. He wasn’t disappointed. The woman smelled like sex. Hot, nasty, spicy sex.
His body hardened along with his intentions. With only a fleeting thought for how aggressive he might appear, he loomed over her, his gaze sweeping downward. When he glanced back up to her eyes, he schooled his expression into something shy of predatory. He didn’t want to frighten her away before he’d even learned her name.
UPDATE: The winners are…Beckie and Eileen Airey!
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It’s too bad the only Saturday song I can think of is Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park”—because I detest it. I know, there are Chicago fans out there, but I’m not one of them. But Saturday needs a theme song, don’t you think?
And it can’t be this one either… *shudder*
Now, you can thank me for the ear worm. 🙂
But it is Saturday! For me, it doesn’t mean much work-wise (every day is a workday), but it does mean the kids don’t have online schoolwork, so I’ll be seeing them in my office a heck of lot more. Argh.
Now, if I had time on my schedule to read a book today—I don’t! I’m editing and reading shorties for the anthology—I would likely pick up a book I’ve already read. One of my “comfort reads”, like Johanna Lindsey’s Warrior’s Woman or Mackenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard, or maybe Julie Garwood’s Saving Grace. I have a single shelf of books I’ve read over the years that I consider my comfort reads. Okay, I think I’d read this one:
It was the first Sci-Fi romance I ever read, and I shared it with the ladies I bunked with during Desert Storm. That copy was so dog-earred by the time I returned home—LOL!
Anyway, for a chance to win your choice of stories from my backlist, tell me what you’re reading this weekend, and whether you have any comfort reads you’d like to share with other readers!
UPDATE: The winners are…Brenda Rumsey, Kelly Samuels, and C. Marie Bowen!
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This month, I’m reading the rest of the cowboy stories that will be a part of my next Boys Behaving Badly short story collection. I’m having a blast reading the offerings from some very talented authors! Once I select the stories, edit them, then compile them into a book, I’ll hand them over to my sister, Elle James, to create a cover for the antho before we get it up on Amazon for you all to purchase! (These big books are always offered for only $0.99—a steal because we want everyone reading the authors’ stories!) It’s a huge undertaking, but one I love. Every anthology, I’ve added new author friends, many of whom who come back, again and again, to submit new stories for readers to enjoy.
As soon as Cowboys is in the can, I’ll be searching for a new theme for the next anthology. That’s where you come in. Below, I have the covers of the previous anthologies so you can see what themes we’ve covered. For a chance to win a download of your choice from among these titles, tell me what you’d like to see next!
Click on the covers to learn more about these books!
January was a pretty cool month. I ticked off several things on my 2021 plan. So far, I’m keeping to The Plan. I do have one every year, but then life happens and things slip or disappear. But so far (I still have today to get through 🙂 ), I’m right on the mark.
I finished writing and published a book — Preacher. I really enjoyed writing it, and it looks like readers are loving it, so whew! Check
I set up the pre-order and began work on the next Montana Bounty Hunter, Hardman, and have three chapters under my belt! Check
I completed two full sets of edits for author-clients, and have two more to carry over into February. Check
My daughter restarted my Delilah Devlin Instagram and took it over, making and posting book memes for me. Something I’ve been completely haphazard about doing. Now, my Insta looks like an author lives there. 🙂 Check
With her help and pushing, I started a new FB group as a place to hang out with fans. We’ve set it up but haven’t done any big events yet, like author takeover days, but that’s coming. In the meantime, we’ve had fun with giveaways and sharing exercises. It’s been a pretty fun thing, and thank you, Kelly, for pushing me over the ledge. So, FB group, Delilah’s Corner. Check
I’ve read through roughly 1/3 of the short stories submitted for the upcoming edition of the Cowboys: Boys Behaving Badly Anthology. Check
Also, during the month, I posted plenty of fun commentary, ran numerous contests, and had many wonderful guests. Maintaining this site is work, too! Check
Already, that’s a lot, but I have one more thing to do today…
If you’ve been following me for very long, you’ll remember that I did this art challenge last year, and I posted a boatload of pics of things I completed. Well, it starts again today, so hopefully, I have room to add one more thing to my daily To Do List without capsizing that boat.
Coming in February
February will be cram-jammed. I want to complete Hardman and start on the last in the Beau Reve Coven series, Dark Moon. If Hardman takes me longer to wrap up than I’ve planned for, then I have to push out Dark Moon and start on Hot SEAL, In His Memory first, because that one has a hard due date (April 27th).
Hardman has a release date on Amazon of March 23rd, but if I finish it early, I may move the release to the end of February or early March, so be watching for that announcement!
I have a ton of short stories to still read through and make decisions regarding which stories will be in Cowboys: Boys Behaving Badly Anthology.
I have two sets of author-client edits to finish up and three more to work on in February.
I have 28 days, therefore 28 art projects, to complete in February.
Plus, I’m going to put together a box set of previously published books and run some special deals. So, be watching for that, too!
I think that’s enough, right? Okay, laid out like that, I’m a little nervous. Will you give me an attagirl? And I don’t mind a little nagging throughout the month…Â
Download your FREE copy of the latest installment of the Love in Lockdown story—SUBLET!
What happens when two exes have to live in an apartment built for one?
Reina Torres has installment #5 of her story, SUBLET, ready for you to read! And she’s not finished yet! There’s going to be at least one more! So, enjoy!
First, thank you to everyone who picked up their copy of Preacher! Thank you, thank you! And bless those who left a review. Very much appreciated! But if you’ve already read the book, you should be asking for the next story, and I didn’t leave that any big mystery whose story it will be…
His name’s Pierce Hardman.
This former SEAL thought BUD/S was hard, but convincing his new trainer that all work and no play doesn’t make a bigger, badder bounty hunter might just be the greatest challenge of his life…
I’m not satisfied with that blurb, but blurbs are torturous and I suck at them. I’ll work on it.
In the meantime, can we celebrate the fact that we’re well into the Dead Horse, MT spinoff series now? I love everything about the town. Coming up with kooky names for the town’s businesses was completely fun and some readers helped with that! This is the reading order and includes the short story, “In the Wild”…
Click on the covers to learn more about these stories!
And then comes,
Contest
For a chance to win a copy of one of the original Montana Bounty Hunters stories, answer me this…
Since I have this wonderful, crazy little town of Dead Horse, should I plan to write some stories that don’t necessarily center around the bounty hunters just for fun? Would that be something you’d like to see?
Oh, and take a look at the cover reveal my dd put together for Hardman. Is this hot or what?
