Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: Trying to Moneyball Book Marketing: Is there One Simple Trick we’re all missing? Come on over for my take.
Book Marketing – What’s the Trick?
//Tag: Chronicles of Dasnaria
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Jeffe’s Eligibility Post
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My Nambe reindeer and sleigh set – this gives me all kinds of happy. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the little jingle-bells string has tiny LED lights, too.
I haven’t been blogging here as much, as I’ve been doing my First Cup of Coffee podcast. Those daily bites are only 20 minutes long (sometimes shorter), but I totally get that a lot of people don’t have the bandwi
dth for listening to stuff. So, I’ll be blogging on Wednesdays here, and still on Sundays at the SFF Seven. (Though I was a bad blogger kitty and missed last Sunday. Oops.)
I’ve been busy writing the fifth book in the Sorcerous Moons series, which I’ll announce here will be called ORIA’S ENCHANTMENT. We’ll have a cover for it soon, and I anticipate releasing it in January! In other news, the third and final book in the Chronicles of Dasnaria trilogy, WARRIOR OF THE WORLD, will be out January 8. There’s a great mention of book 2, EXILE OF THE SEAS. – amid other awesome books – in A (Brief) Timeline of Female Authors’ Influence on Sci-Fi and Fantasy Also, ending today, December 12, there’s a giveaway for book 1 of the trilogy, PRISONER OF THE CROWN.
So, that leads me to mentioning Eligibilitabilimagullity.
That how you say it, to avoid the worst side effects of using the word three times and bringing down the scorn of the jealous gods. See, in the SFF world, all the awards require outside nomination. Whereas I can enter my books for RWA’s RITA® Award, for awards in the SFF community, we rely on others to nominate our books. Thus, we do eligibility posts, listing which of our year’s releases might be possibilities. I’ve never done one of these posts before, but I finally decided it’s like entering the RITA®, only less expensive.
Speaking of The Chronicles of Dasnaria, two of those books are eligible in the novel category, PRISONER OF THE CROWN and EXILE OF THE SEAS. These are high fantasy, with no romance in the first, and a light touch of it in the second. These are traditionally published, from Rebel Base books.
Also in the novel category, the fourth book in my Uncharted Realms series (or seventh in The Twelve Kingdoms, depending on how you slice it), THE ARROWS OF THE HEART is also eligible. This one is firmly fantasy romance. I’m self-publishing these books to complete the series.
Also eligible in this series, in novella length, The Dragons of Summer, available in the anthology SEASONS OF SORCERY: a Fantasy Anthology, a collection I self-published with Amanda Bouchet, Grace Draven and Jennifer Estep. Their stories are also eligible in novella categories! All excellent fantasy stories with varying degrees of romance.
So, if you’re nominating for SFF Awards – the Nebula Awards, the Hugos, World Fantasy, etc. – then thank you!
First Cup of Coffee – September 4, 2018 & Release Day!
//Today is the release day for EXILE OF THE SEAS!
Around the shifting borders of the Twelve Kingdoms, trade and conflict, danger and adventure put every traveler on guard . . . but some have everything to lose.
ESCAPED
Once she was known as Jenna, Imperial Princess of Dasnaria, schooled in graceful dance and comely submission. Until the man her parents married her off to almost killed her with his brutality.
Now, all she knows is that the ship she’s boarded is bound away from her vicious homeland. The warrior woman aboard says Jenna’s skill in dancing might translate into a more lethal ability. Danu’s fighter priestesses will take her in, disguise her as one of their own—and allow her to keep her silence.
But it’s only a matter of time until Jenna’s monster of a husband hunts her down. Her best chance to stay hidden is to hire out as bodyguard to a caravan traveling to a far-off land, home to beasts and people so unfamiliar they seem like part of a fairy tale. But her supposed prowess in combat is a fraud. And sooner or later, Jenna’s flight will end in battle—or betrayal . . .
“The storytelling is lush and vivid, some parts, particularly the peeks into Jenna’s psyche, so beautiful and raw, they make your heart hurt.”
~Julie Fine on Goodreads
“(…) a sweeping piece of fantasy that captured my imagination and I’m blown away by this authors talent.”
~Marta Cox on Goodreads
“Jenna’s character is one of the best that I’ve read in terms of development. I may not have read the first book, but she grows so much during the course of this book that I didn’t feel like I was seeing her for the first time.”
~TheDigressiveApproach on Goodreads
PRISONER OF THE CROWN Available on Radish!
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If you’re into Radish – which is an app for your mobile device – you can start reading PRISONER OF THE CROWN there immediately! The actual book will be out at all of the usual vendors on June 12, so you can order/preorder on your favorite platform. Because of this, I’ve been checking out Radish and it does look like a fun way to sample new-to-me authors. I’m not sure I’d want to read on it extensively, but for checking stuff out while I’m stuck somewhere as an alternative to scrolling social media? Win!
She was raised to be beautiful, nothing more. And then the rules changed . . .
In icy Dasnaria, rival realm to the Twelve Kingdoms, a woman’s role is to give pleasure, produce heirs, and question nothing. But a plot to overthrow the emperor depends on the fate of his eldest daughter. And the treachery at its heart will change more than one carefully limited life . . .
Princess Jenna has been raised in supreme luxury—and ignorance. Within the sweet-scented, golden confines of the palace seraglio, she’s never seen the sun, or a man, or even learned her numbers. But she’s been schooled enough in the paths to a woman’s power. When her betrothal is announced, she’s ready to begin the machinations that her mother promises will take Jenna from ornament to queen.
But the man named as Jenna’s husband is no innocent to be cozened or prince to charm. He’s a monster in human form, and the horrors of life under his thumb are clear within moments of her wedding vows. If Jenna is to live, she must somehow break free—and for one born to a soft prison, the way to cold, hard freedom will be a dangerous path indeed . . .
The Artful Juggle: Planning Future Books While Keeping up with Current Deadlines
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Our topic this week at the SFF Seven – the challenge of maintaining a writing schedule and trying to prepare for future business – is an apropos one for me right now.
Because, boy howdy, have I been wrestling this particular challenge lately. Come on over for more!
Important Things to Know about PRISONER OF THE CROWN
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The alert readers among you – some of you people are amazing how fast you find stuff! – have noticed that I have covers and copy up for two new releases coming this year. These are the first two in the high fantasy trilogy I’m doing with Rebel Base Books, Kensington’s new Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint. (They just launched in January 2018.) The trilogy is called The Chronicles of Dasnaria – I told you before that it was The Lost Princess Chronicles, but we changed that – and the first book is PRISONER OF THE CROWN, not Princess of Dasnaria as previously reported.
The reason for these changes? Well, it turns out that any time you put “princess” in a title, people go running straight to Young Adult (YA) in their heads. Including cover artists, it turns out. The first cover for PRISONER OF THE CROWN was way too Disney princess for the content of the book. A major problem!
Because…
And this is the entire point of this post and I hope you all will help in sharing this widely!
THIS TRILOGY IS NOT YA!
In fact, it’s not even fantasy romance.
There’s dark shit in these books, people. Lots of rape/abuse triggers, too.
Here’s the copy for PRISONER OF THE CROWN (releasing June 12, 2018):
***********
She was raised to be beautiful, nothing more. And then the rules changed…
In icy Dasnaria, rival realm to the Twelve Kingdoms, a woman’s roleis to give pleasure, produce heirs, and question nothing. But a plot to overthrow the emperor depends on the fate of his eldest daughter. And the treachery at its heart will change more than one carefully limited life…
THE GILDED CAGE
Princess Jenna has been raised in supreme luxury—and ignorance. Within the sweet-scented, golden confines of the palace seraglio, she’s never seen the sun, or a man, or even learned her numbers. But she’s been schooled enough in the paths to a woman’s power. When her betrothal is announced, she’s ready to begin the machinations that her mother promises will take Jenna from ornament to queen.
But the man named as Jenna’s husband is no innocent to be cozened or prince to charm. He’s a monster in human form, and the horrors of life under his thumb are clear within moments of her wedding vows. If Jenna is to live, she must somehow break free—and for one born to a soft prison, the way to cold, hard freedom will be a dangerous path indeed…
***********
Okay?
The husband is a monster. He’s not an alphahole, not a hero-in-disguise, not a villain tranformed and redeeemed. This is Jenna’s story and no romance AT ALL in this first book.
Here’s the copy for the second book, EXILE OF THE SEAS (out September 4, 2018):
It’s a bit spoilery, but hey, so is the title, right? And if you’ve read THE EDGE OF THE BLADE, you knew what happened to her anyway, so…
***********
Around the shifting borders of the Twelve Kingdoms, trade and conflict, danger and adventure put every traveler on guard . . . but some have everything to lose.
ESCAPED
Once she was known as Jenna, Imperial Princess of Dasnaria, schooled in graceful dance and comely submission. Until the man her parents married her off to almost killed her with his brutality.
Now, all she knows is that the ship she’s boarded is bound away from her vicious homeland. The warrior woman aboard says Jenna’s skill in dancing might translate into a more lethal ability. Danu’s fighter priestesses will take her in, disguise her as one of their own—and allow her to keep her silence.
But it’s only a matter of time until Jenna’s monster of a husband hunts her down. Her best chance to stay hidden is to hire out as bodyguard to a caravan traveling to a far-off land, home to beasts and people so unfamiliar they seem like part of a fairy tale. But her supposed prowess in combat is a fraud. And sooner or later, Jenna’s flight will end in battle—or betrayal . . .
***********
So, as you can suss from this, there’s not really romance in this one either. Although, there is the beginning of a something something that you keen romance-sniffers will detect. And the third book…
Well, I’m writing WARRIOR OF THE WORLD (out January 2019) right now, so we shall see!
<insert evil laugh here>
Okay, who are we kidding? You all know I love an (eventual) happy ending. But, you know, if you see readers putting these on their YA shelves on Goodreads or Booklikes, talk them out of it. Really, they’ll be glad you did. These books tell a heroic tale, but our heroine goes through some bad stuff that I didn’t want to flinch away from or gloss.
All that said, I think the trilogy is a fantastic journey and I can’t wait for you all (those who won’t be triggered, that is) to read it!