Writer Beware Blogs!: Guest Blog Post: How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase

How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase

This is a great post by guest writer Abigail Goben. Writer Beware Blogs!: Guest Blog Post: How Libraries Choose Books to Purchase Most (if not all) authors would love to see their book/s in libraries all over the country, and some have possibly wondered how do libraries choose their books. The above link opens your eyes to the workings within the library process that gets your book a nay or a yea.

Some suggestions to aid the author are, getting good book reviews, and not only from all your friends and relatives but from professional guides in the industry such as Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher's Weekly. Can't get a foot in those doors? Then go for other equally respected avenues such as book review sites of long standing such as ReaderViews and the like.

Another important aspect is the simplest - visual appeal. Make sure your book has a great cover and one that works for readers, not necessarily one that you are hooked on.

Your work may not be what the library is looking for so before you hound your local librarian, why don't you browse the shelves and see what appears to be popular.

Of course, the easiest way to get your book into any library is to donate it, in the hope that people will enjoy it so much they will spread the word, or even purchase their own copy.

Whatever you do, make sure you respect the library and its workers - after all, their job is to run the library and not to promote you. Get to know your local library and if they can't help out, they may be able to refer you to someone who will.

Love At First Bite?: Author Sindee Lynn

On the list of what’s hot right now in publishing is, of course, vampires! Suave, sensuous, sleek, and absolutely gorgeous, these twenty-first century vampires are a long way from ugly ole’ Drac along the lines of Nosferatu. My second Virtual Book Tour author is Sindee Lynn, a writer with a grip on the passionate side of vampires. Her first book is called (no, not Love At First Bite) Prince’s Donor. I was intrigued by the title, which doesn’t really hint too much about fangs, jugulars and oozing sticky kisses. Here’s a little teaser about this very special prince among vampires.

Four years ago Jenna James signed up for the donor database with fanciful thoughts of lying in the arms of a vampire. Now four years later, she finds herself wishing she had never heard it. How depressing is it to think not even a vampire will have sex with you to survive? Feeling lower than she has in ages, Jenna is convinced she's finally ready to remove her name from the list. That is until she opens her door to find her fantasy standing on the other side. Syrian Roskonovich is next in line to be the king of vampires. But nothing in his years of training could have prepared him for the betrayal of his blood brother and his donor. It's been months since he's properly fed, living only on the synthetic blood his people create when he finds himself in a strange city holding on to his sanity by a thread. His only hope is in the database he helped bring to life but has failed him in the past.

Let’s have a chat with this interesting author and find out how and why she combines the dark side of passion with the paranormal.

Q. How did you become a writer? Did you grow up among books?

Growing up, my love of reading was nourished by my aunt who used to bring me bags of Harlequin Romance novels; back then they had almost cartoonlike characters in them. Those books are still at my childhood home. Today I am the single parent of a very active teenager, which means I don’t have much free time for me but what time I can squeeze out I split between reading and on my writing.

Q. What inspired this unusual first book?

I have always loved books about vampires, beginning with Anne Rice and Interview with a Vampire. When vampires began showing up in my romance novels, which I have loved since I was younger, it was like the best thing ever. But what I noticed was even with all the many vampire romance novels out there, a lot of them were similar in how vampires react to humans, how they find their love interest, how they take blood and I wanted to come up with something different. Then it hit me—what if there was a list of humans whose sole purpose was to provide blood and sex to vampires and other creatures of the like when needed. I had never read a vampire romance based on that. The thought fascinated me at first until it became a fully blown idea.

Q. How did you come up with the title?

It didn’t a whole lot of brain power there. Syrian, my hero, is the Prince of Vampires and he is in need of a donor to provide him with the blood and sex he needs to maintain his existence. So I just put the two together and there you have Prince's Donor. I wish all of my book titles were that easy to come up with and actually work.

Q. How did you come up with your characters and the vampire angle—what was the inspiration there?

I draw inspiration from all sorts of places. A movie I'm watching or a song I'm listening to. But because I love vampires, I do a lot of thinking of story lines specific to vampires, werewolves, and other shifters. I always have paper and pen everywhere I go because I never know when I'll get an idea. As far as my characters go, my heroine will most often be a plus sized female because I don't think we have enough stories about us finding love (I'm a plus sized woman myself). The hero will always be sexy, even if a side of him has a dark, dangerous element like with Syrian and his animal side, but in addition to that I like to make my hero almost unobtainable on some level so that when my heroine gets him ... she's getting the cream of the crop!

Q. Writing about passion, paranormal, and erotica—how does this challenge, inspire, empower you?

I'm not even sure where to begin with this question. Let's tackle the passion issue... it's always a challenge because if you don't build the relationship and then the sexual tension which moves towards the passion between your hero and heroine, you have a real problem. Because you find yourself with two characters whom you have put together and they're not working. Something's missing. I find myself asking how did I get from the first hello to the bedroom, and if I can't answer the question then I haven't done my part with passion between them. So it's back to the drawing board.

For me the erotica part is the easiest part of the book to write. My friends, who read my work, have asked how I came up with the love scenes. And I answer honestly ... they come from my crazy odd imagination. If I can see it in my mind, then I can put it on paper. It may take a few revisions to get it into words as I see it in my head, but I will get there. And it is very empowering because I don't have to sugar coat anything. If my heroine gets turned on by having her hero talk dirty to her or vice versa, I can do that. There are very few limits in the erotica field. So wherever my mind and imagination can take me is where I can go. It's great.

Q: Vampires are so ‘in’ right now. How do you make sure you stand out from the crowd of authors cashing in on this boom?

I admit to finding writing in the paranormal genre a challenge sometimes because I don’t want my books to be like another vampire book that has already been done. It’s hard to find new ways to spin the same tale and I want my books to stand out so I will admit to putting extra time and effort into writing my paranormal stories.

Sounds like a whole lot of lovin’ going on behind those paranormal doors. If you want to dip into something different or you’re looking for a vampire love story with a difference, get Prince’s Donor on Amazon.
Thanks for being my guest, Sindee, and I hope readers will comment and ask questions. You may just get some inspiration from them!

Facts Can be Fun!

I am privileged right now to serve as both a guest and a host on the Virtual Book Tour and my recent guest post on Authors Promoting Authors was about how to make non-fiction details fun and relevant in children's fiction. The tendency of many writers who need to incorporate facts into fiction for kids is to overload the page with details that - while interesting - may not be all that relevant to the story, or may bog the young readers down in 'stuff' that gets in the way of the story. Please read my hints on how to weave those facts seamlessly into your great kids' story. My challenge came when writing my adventure book set in Egypt. Sometimes I chewed my nails trying to decide ... in? ... or out? ... what to ditch and what to keep. I hit upon a method that worked well for my story and my young heroes' needs.

For some extra tips visit the Scrub-a-Dub-Tub blog for some excellent posts on making facts fascinating in non-fiction books for kids.

Fat Vampires, Sexy Werewolves and the Future of Teen Reading

Just when you thought it was safe to read something else? Along comes Fat Vampires, Sexy Werewolves and the Future of Teen Reading: "The continuing prevalence of pale,sexy vampires (and the rise of related ..."
One can endlessly debate the pros and cons of teen fad books but let's remember the most important thing - kids are READING! And that's what counts. They'll discover Bram Stoker and Anne Rice soon enough. What I'd like to know is when is someone going to write a YA/teen fad version of Frankenstein?