Things have been very busy here with Mother’s Day and the fast approach of the last day of school. Today is my youngest’s last (half) day, and there goes my writing time… I still have one more week before my kindergartener is officially home for the summer. So, in between shopping and making teacher gifts, I’ve been trying to squeeze in some writing…and also some reading…and also some new marketing and sales.

I finally finished the submission process for getting my self-published book up onto Lightening Source to be distributed at online retailers as an ebook. I’m not sure anything will come of this, but I figure, if there are any sales, they’ll just be perks, because I had to expend very little extra effort to get the book into the appropriate formats.

Also, last I blogged, I mentioned the online Australian women’s magazine Beauty and Lace. Rather coincidentally, they currently have a review posted for my book, Unladylike Pursuits. The review is nice, but they liken the story to The Taming of the Shrew. Personally, I don’t see the connection—on any level, but maybe it’s all in the nuances.

In other news, I recently had an article published in the Romance Writers Report, the trade magazine for Romance Writers of America, and I mentioned in my author blurb that I am a self-published author. My husband joked over whether or not we had enough stock to supply the demand that would surely result from eager readers that would pop out of the woodwork as a result of the article. I set him straight: if anyone is dead-set against a self-published author, it’s an author who would never consider self-publishing. I have seen more derogatory posts on various loops, globally slamming self-published works and their upstart authors, than I would have believed possible. I say, read the book, then have an opinion. And by the way, you can buy it directly from me—I own the rights.

I’ll be updating my website and sending out my quarterly newsletter shortly, so if you’re interested, visit my site to sign-up.

Until next time…try not to melt in the pre-summer heat.

Well, I’ve finally gotten through the submission process of getting my debut novel Unladylike Pursuits (currently out in mass-market paperback) distributed as an ebook. Now I’m waiting on proofs… The whole process has been very interesting, and now I can actually say that I’ve viewed three already published ebooks in both Adobe format and Microsoft Reader (or LIT) format. If I was willing to sit at my computer any longer than necessary, it might actually be rather pleasant to read books that way. I’d like to get my hands on an actual ebook reader to see how that differs.

In the meantime…I’ve read some very interesting and clever books lately. And surprise, surprise, at least one of them…The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’ Rourke would be considered literature! The other—I have to laugh—was hilarious, and the author’s blurb, equally so. The book was Going Coastal by Wendy French , who claims “her parents unwittingly cursed her writing career with a happy and stable childhood. In an effort to overcome her unfortunate beginnings, she sought artistic torment at the University of Victoria, but despair eluded her…happiness continued to stalk her, day and night. Finally, she conceded defeat, abandoned her quest for misery, and began writing humorous women’s fiction.” Mmmm-hmmm…I’d choose that over literature most any day. Well, Ms. French definitely has a sense of humor—I laughed out loud many times over the course of reading her book. And…I’ve already gone out in search of another. I actually found her on the Australian website www.beautyandlace.com.

Now…I should really be working on my own manuscript…ta ta!

I have to admit to being a little concerned. I may not be going to the RWA National conference this year, but that doesn’t stop me from checking up on which agents and editors are accepting appointments and what genres they are looking to represent and publish, respectively. Well everybody seems to want erotica, paranormal, and romantic suspense. I don’t write any of that. I figure I could conceivably classify my work-in-progress as single title, chick-lit, or women’s fiction, and it doesn’t seem as if any of those genres are very popular at this go-round. And the breakdown of who is interested in these genres seems weighted much more heavily on the agent side. So either the editors showing up for National aren’t representative of the bunch or the agents aren’t in sync with the editors. This may mean nothing, but I can’t help that it worries me a little. When you’re plugging along on your manuscript, you want to see a strong, steady market for the style and genre you’ve chosen. You don’t want to slave away, only to finish and have the people ‘in the know’ tell you that the market is flooded and they’re looking for the next hot thing… .And yet, I will continue to keep plugging along. Maybe I’ll find a way to add a vampire neighbor, a racy co-worker who wants to trade sex stories, or a crazed stalker. Maybe all three… The trouble is, by the time I add all of that, they’ll be looking for something else. Que será será, I suppose.