Birth of a Series - Part Three

As I write this, I’m busy working on Book Three of the Series.

Before I started writing any of the books, I considered marketing. Most authors will tell you that there are two aspects of being an author that are a pain – one is writing a catchy blurb, and the other is marketing. I would have to agree.

From what I’ve observed, each genre requires slightly different marketing. There are dozens of books willing to tell you how to do it, but frankly I’ve found that experimenting works for me. Yes, every once in a while an ad or a promo is a complete bust, but I’m not likely to forget it and repeat the mistake.

My first consideration was the ‘look’ of the covers. I wanted to convey an emotional read, and as I said in an earlier post, each story is about a woman at a turning point in her life. Issues so far have been work-related, health-related, and the one I’m working on now is about the end of a relationship.

Look on any e-book sales site these days, and ninety percent of the romances have either a hot looking man with no shirt and 6-pack abs, or a male and female in a clutch. Makes sense… the author and cover designer are showing you what to expect when you start reading.

I’m taking a bit of a chance with this new series. I’m portraying just the female protagonist on the cover. Each story will have a romantic interest involved, but he won’t make the cover. Not because the man isn’t important, but because I want the series to stand out as something just different enough to attract a potential reader’s interest. Each book is a romance, but it’s primarily about the story.

After much discussion back and forth, Elizabeth Mackey has come up with an amazing series of covers. I’ll post four of them here, and I hope you agree with me that she’s done a wonderful job.

Time to get back writing. These darn books don’t write themselves!  Release date for the first three looks to be somewhere in the middle of August. I’ll be sure to let you know.

ps:  If you’d like to receive notices from me on new releases, and free or discounted books, please sign up for my e-mail newsletter. Sign-up form is on my facebook page. See the envelope graphic in the left-hand panel; that’s where you sign up. Here’s the link:  https://www.facebook.com/MonaIngramBooks?ref=hl

Birth of a Series - Part 2

One of the toughest decisions I made when I started this series was to release the first three books concurrently. Why? Because I believe that for a reader to become involved with any series, and the style of storytelling, they need to read several. Of course it’s in my best interest to have readers buy the subsequent books, and if they like the stories, I’m confident they will buy more than one.

This new series – or collection of stories – will have one thing in common. Each story starts at a turning point in the central character’s life.  The stories will revolve almost solely around one character, and as a result they will be shorter than my other novels. These would technically be called novellas, but that term is misunderstood and misrepresented, so I’ll be making it clear that they’re an encapsulated story line with the focus being a romantic story. I’ve read a lot of romances recently that are nothing more than a beginning and an ending, with multiple sex scenes spliced in between. A sex sandwich, as it were.

There’s nothing wrong with that – if they weren’t popular, readers wouldn’t buy them, and they’d fade away into obscurity. But I’ve learned that my readers like a bit more story between “hello” and “I do”. And with this new series, I intend to give them that. Don’t get me wrong – there’s lots of romance, but there’s an interesting storyline as well.

I’m one work day away from finishing the second one. It’s an exciting time, and I’m getting anxious to share them with you.

In Part Three, I’ll show you the covers designed by my incredible cover artist. She’s done an amazing job, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

See you in a couple of weeks!

ps:  If you’d like to receive notices from me on new releases, and free or discounted books, please sign up for my e-mail newsletter. Sign-up form is on my facebook page. See the envelope graphic in the left-hand panel; that’s where you sign up. Here’s the link:  https://www.facebook.com/MonaIngramBooks?ref=hl