• Author Marketing

    Free Access to Self Publishing Advice Conference 2022 #SelfPubCon #Writing

    Free Access for ALLi Members

    The Self Publishing Advice Conference offers two full days (10:00 AM - 10:00 PM) of information and insights for indie authors. Speakers include Joanna Penn, Mark Dawson, Nick Stephenson, Joel Friedlander, Jane Friedman, Mark Lefebvre, Mark Coker, Michael Anderle, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathering Rusch, Robin Cutler, Carla King, and my favorite -- David Gaughran.

    The Conference cost is $499, but is free to members of the Alliance of Independent Authors - ALLi. ALLi is a professional business membership organization that advices, campaigns for, and empowers self-publishing authors. The mission of this non-profit organization is ethics and excellence in self-publishing, and the provide authors with trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources. Benefits include contract advice, guidebooks, discounts and deals, vetted services, and much more.

    Membership levels in ALLi:

    Associate ($89USD)

    You are preparing your first book for self-publication. You could also be a student of creative writing, multimedia, or publishing with an interest in author-publishing.

    Advisory team – all questions answered
    Free author advice guides
    Private moderated member’s forum
    Selected discounts for author services
    Affiliate earnings program
    Approved Services directory
    Online advice conference
    Daily blog, twice-weekly podcast
    Associate member website badge

    Author ($119USD)

    If you’ve published one book or more, or are just about to upload your first book, this is the membership for you. This could be a full-length (50,000+ words) book for adults, a number/series of shorter books, or a children’s or poetry book."

    Advisory team – all questions answered
    Free author advice guides
    Private moderated member’s forum
    All discounts for author services
    Affiliate earnings program
    Approved Services directory
    Online advice conference
    Daily blog, twice-weekly podcast
    Author member website badge
    Public author-publisher profile
    Book listing
    Contract vetting
    General legal advice
    Blogging opportunities
    Speaker opportunities
    Interview opportunities

    Authorpreneur ($149USD)

    Authorpreneurs earn their living from self-publishing and associated business. This membership is assessed – you will need to show evidence of 50,000 book sales in the past two years and/or KU or business equivalent.

    Advisory team – all questions answered
    Free author advice guides
    Private moderated member’s forum
    All discounts for author services
    Affiliate earnings program
    Approved Services directory
    Online advice conference
    Daily blog, twice-weekly podcast
    Public author-publisher profile
    Book listing
    Contract vetting
    General legal advice
    Blogging opportunities
    Speaker opportunities
    Interview opportunities
    Authorpreneur member website badge
    Business development advice
    Dedicated literary agent
    Rights and contract consultancy
    Business, tax, legal, and contract advice and resources

    As a member of ALLi, I have seen the benefits already. When you join, you can join their affiliate program and help other authors gain the same benefits. Here are two links to join ALLi. This one has my affiliate link - https://selfpublishingadviceconference.com/?wpam_id=10337 and this one does not. Using my link won't cost you any more or less than this one. https://selfpublishingadviceconference.com

  • Military

    When Writing Military Boxed Sets @sharonlhamilton #RLFblog

    Uniform Desires 
    Uniform Desires is a boxed set of novellas from some of the best
    military writers on the planet: Delilah Devlin, Melissa Schroeder, Cat Johnson,
    JM Madden, Elle James and myself. Most of us have either served in the military,
    or have had husbands and children who have served, or who are serving now.
    The release of this anthology is timed for Veteran’s Day, 11-11-13.
    It is the only all-military boxed set available this year.
    Our stories run the gamut, from Marines to para-rescue teams,
    wounded vets and Navy SEALs. These are the quiet guys who get things done, putting
    themselves in harm’s way, sacrificing their own safety for ours. It’s the least
    we could do to help bring their stories to life.
    We aren’t writing detailed accounts of war. There are great writers
    out there who specialize in bringing readers that genre. We write about the love
    stories, about what happens when the soldier comes home, when his special training
    doesn’t prepare him for the “dangers” of falling in love.
    I think that’s what I love most about writing military romance.
    Certainly no national secrets are divulged in my books, but I’ve enjoyed the SEAL
    community I’ve gotten to know, and like to write about what happens to them on a
    personal side. I’ve said many times when I’ve spoken to groups, that the stories
    I’ve heard are even more outrageous than what I put in my books. No one would believe
    some of the things I’ve been told. Indeed, truth can be stranger than fiction.
    When I’m at book signings or book fairs, people sometimes shy
    away from picking up a military romance because they don’t like to think about men
    and women coming into harm’s way, and perhaps for many, it is too close to home.
    In romance, or romantic suspense, although not everyone survives the stories, usually
    the hero and heroine do. Forced to deal with life and death, they are thrown together,
    and almost don’t survive. In the midst of a crisis, love finds a way, and turns
    out in the end to save the day.
    Unlike some of the other boxed sets being sold today, most of
    the material in the anthology is brand new. And, although there are many kinds of
    heroes out there who sacrifice themselves for the public every day, the heroes in
    our book are only military heroes.
    Instead of attaching a blurb, I’m going to run down brief blurbs
    of each of the stories, and the authors who wrote them:
    Infatuation by Melissa Schroeder
    USA Today Bestselling Author
www.melissaschroeder.net
    To prove her love and save her man, she has to go above and beyond
    the call of duty
    SEAL Francis McKade never acted on his feelings for his best
    friend’s sister. All that changes at a wedding in Hawaii, but the next morning, he’s called for
    a mission-one that leaves his world in shambles.
    Months later, Kade shows up in her bar a changed man. When he
    pushes her to her limits in the bedroom, Shannon
    refuses to back down. One way or another, he’ll learn there’s no walking away from
    love—not while she still has breath in her body.
    SEAL’s Honor by Elle James
    Award-winning Author
www.ellejames.com
    Two Navy SEALs jeopardize their lives and hearts in a battle-torn
    land when they vie for the love of one sexy Night Stalker helicopter pilot
    SEAL Reed Tucker doesn’t believe in commitment, until he tangles
    the sheets with one hot pilot, Delaney O’Connell. His phobia against commitment
    is challenged when his best friend asks Delaney to marry him.
    As a helicopter pilot for the 160th Night Stalkers, Delaney knows
    the risks of loving a SEAL. When her lover’s friend loses an arm in battle, she
    can’t refuse his marriage proposal when he’s already lost so much. In love with
    one man, pledged to marry another, she’s torn.
    Tuck and Delaney must come to grips with the happiness they owe
    themselves and the happiness of their friend who has lost so much.
    SEAL the Deal by Sharon Hamilton
    Bestselling Author
http://sharonhamiltonauthor.com/
    A SEAL’s nightmare of a promise given at his sister’s deathbed
    gives him the woman of his dreams
    Special Operator Nick Dunn gets the call he has been dreading
    since before his last deployment. His sister is in her final stages of cancer. He
    drives up to Sonoma County from Coronado
    to help her shut down her failing nursery business and tie up her final affairs.
    He must work with his sister’s best friend he only vaguely remembers from his past.
    But boy has she grown up.
    
Devon Brandeburg has
    created a small financial fortune through her success in real estate. Her career
    is her main focus, but a closely guarded secret is her total lack of experience
    with men. After all, who needs them? Especially when their testosterone-stuffed
    egos suck all the air out of the room, like Nick’s does.
    Nick’s sister requires two things of the both of them as her
    dying wish.
 What starts as a deathbed promise turns out
    to be a hot affair neither one expected. Nick becomes Devon’s
    teacher in her journey to womanhood. As she comes alive in his arms, the
    student brings the teacher something he’s never allowed himself to want, and now
    knows he needs.
    Dangerous Liaisons by Delilah Devlin
    Award-winning Author
www.delilahdevlin.com
    A pampered travel agent escapes through the jungle with an undercover
    DEA agent when a drug lord mistakes her for a rival’s daughter
    After surviving a week of anti-terrorist training in a Central
    American jungle, Maya Cordoba is ready to kick off the mud from her designer boots
    after she hijacks her sexy driving instructor. Instead, she finds herself staring
    down the barrel of an AK-47and being kidnapped! Mistaken for a rival drug lord’s
    daughter she knows if they learn she’s not who they think she is—she’s dead.
    Rescue comes from ex-marine and undercover DEA agent, Angel Rickman.
    He promises to get her out as long as she does everything he tells her to. Together,
    they make a mad dash through the jungle with the drug cartel’s army on their tails.
    Her Forever Hero by JM Madden
    Bestselling Author
    When the boss’s pregnant, unwed daughter needs rescuing, disabled
    Marine Grafton Parks proves he’s still a hero
    Kendall Herrington is drawn to her handsome new security guard,
    prosthetic hand and all. The man is totally wrong for her, but on a lonely Christmas
    night, she gives in to her body’s demands, regret setting in on the morning after.
    Former EOD Marine Grafton Parks knows Kendall
    is resisting admitting she’s pregnant and that the board won’t allow an unwed, pregnant
    female to run the multi-billion dollar Herrington Corporation. Even if she is the
    boss’s daughter.
    As they struggle to come to terms with each other, an unexpected
    danger threatens their lives. Will they survive long enough for him to be…Her Forever
    Hero?
    Cinderella
    Liberty
    by Cat Johnson
    New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
    A weekend liberty leads to unexpected passion between a Marine
    and his best friend’s sister, but he must survive seven months in Afghanistan to get
    back to her
    Marine Gunnery Sergeant John “Crash” O’Malley has two
    goals. Enjoy his liberty in New York City, and survive
    his deployment to Afghanistan.
    What he didn’t plan on is Trish. A guy can’t have a one-night stand with his best
    friend’s sister and then abandon her at midnight when his liberty ends, but starting
    a new relationship days before shipping out would be crazy.
    Crash doesn’t realize his friend’s displeasure over him breaking
    the ‘no sisters rule’ is nothing compared to what the insurgents have in store for
    them in the Helmand
    Province. Now, Crash’s new
    objective is to get home alive and make Trish his.
    We are honored to be able to bring you these stories for Veteran’s
    Day. Won’t you share them with your friends and family, who love to read about the
    men and women who protect and defend us every day?

    Buy link:

    http://www.amazon.com/Uniform-Desires-Make-Mine-Military-ebook/dp/B00G187832?tag-sharohamil-20

    About the Author

    Sharon Hamilton
    Life is one fool thing
    after another.
    Love is two fool things
    after each other.
    Sharon Hamilton
    Sharon’s
    award-winning spicy Navy SEAL stories in the SEAL Brotherhood series, have consistently
    made best sellers lists and review sites. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky
    road to redemption through passion and true love.
    Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve
    read before, since they don’t go to ground and can walk around in the full light
    of the sun.
    Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are
    sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one.
    You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class.
    She lives in Sonoma
    County, California with
    her husband, and two Dobermans. A lifelong organic gardener, when she’s not writing,
    she’s getting vera vera dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmer’s Markets looking
    for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers.

    Find Me Here

  • New Writer Tips

    Sometimes Writing Can be Like Pulling Teeth #Writing #Blogging @Selena_Illyria #RLFblog

    Hidden Diversions

    Romance Lives Forever welcomes
    Selena Illyria to the blog for an article on writing and writer’s block. This article
    could have come from my own heart – after reading it, I felt I knew my friend Selena
    much better. If you’re a writer, you owe it to yourself to read this. If you’re
    a reader, this might make you appreciate writers a little bit more.
    I’ve been
    meaning to write this blog for quite some time but something or other always came
    up. Over the past few months I’ve been having computer issues so that didn’t help.
    Those issues made both editing and writing difficult. I was in panic mode during
    those times; it was a fight to get in every edit or finish a sentence. After I turned
    in my edits, which was a relief, I still had a book to finish but soon it became
    evident that my old laptop wasn’t up to the task. Recently, I was able to get a
    new laptop that would allow me to continue with writing and other things, which
    was a relief. That sentiment didn’t last long.
    As I waded
    back into the world of writing it became clear that I was in trouble. For weeks
    I’d been going around in manic mode to get things done. And once my edits were done,
    I started to seep into depression with every day that I didn’t get to write or I
    didn’t get to write enough. That depression turned to anger and stress. I became
    mired in frustration at my inability to get anything done. I thought that getting
    a new computer would help with all those emotions. It didn’t.
    Now I
    was in a new form of hell. One where every word was like pulling teeth or mucking
    through molasses. No word was right or enough. I found myself falling backward into
    old bad habits that I’d been trying to break after my burnout a year before. I became
    angry at myself, frustrated that it wasn’t as easy at it once was. That my mind,
    fingers and brain didn’t seem to want to cooperate or work with each other like
    they used to. Even though I knew I couldn’t go back, I still wanted to recapture
    that hubristic little shit that I was when I first started. When you finish your
    first book and get it published you’re on a high. You can do anything, write anything.
    Book after book can pour out of you like water. Phrases like writer’s block or burnout
    don’t even apply. They’re like distant lands you’ll never visit and have no intention
    of stopping in, not even for a moment. Those two things would never happen to you,
    because you’re kick-ass, you’re made of so much awesome sauce that it comes out
    of your pores.
    Yeah right.
    Then they both come and you get your ass handed to you, even if it’s temporary or
    lasts longer than a week or month. The first time burnout happened to me, I needed
    a few weeks to recover. Then those periods lasted longer and longer until it seem
    never-ending. Now, I find myself in a new kind of Hades, one where I can finally
    write but the words aren’t coming. Everything I put down sucks and my internal editor
    is playing kickball with every sentence, comma, and my confidence.
    The one
    thing you never truly understand until you become a writer is that it’s truly a
    solitary career. No one else can write what you write. Your editors can clean up
    your work, improve your voice, and your publishers can put out your books, but in
    the end, they can’t write them for you. They don’t have your voice or vision or
    phrasing. You can write with a partner but you still have to pull your own weight.
    And none of those people can give you confidence when you fall down or start to
    wonder how you could ever have gotten published in the first place. Things get doubled
    or tripled if you have people in your life that question why you write or make you
    feel like crap because you don’t have “a real job.”
    After
    much wallowing, hiding in reading “comfort books” and pretending that
    I’d get to writing the next day, eventually I had to stop hiding. So, I opened my
    story and got back to work. Unfortunately I’d ended with a sex scene. Nothing says
    sexy like depression. *rolls eyes* And that’s when the self-doubt and self-hatred
    started. Writing the sex scene was painful and I’m still not done with it. Nothing
    about it screamed emotional or enticing. I had to stop before I sabotaged myself,
    but I still had to write. So, I put away that story, for now, to try a palate cleanser,
    to write something that wasn’t contracted and something that wasn’t paranormal (which
    the other story was). It wasn’t perfect, if an editor saw it there would be lots
    of knuckle wrapping and tsk, tsk, tsking, but in the end I’d written something,
    anything and it was pretty good. I had accomplished something.
    Recovering
    from all the pain, heartache, self-doubt, frustration, writer’s block, and writer’s
    fear will take time, and baby steps. But in the end I am a writer and damn it, this
    is what I’m meant to do. Even if it is painful, it’s my job and I love it even if
    it can be a pain in the ass at times. Also, I know that I’ll make it through this
    patch because I’m surrounded by awesome people. One more thing: I’m stubborn.
    For more information about
    Selena’s latest release:
    Blurb:
    Their passion may be the
    death of them…
    Werewolf Chief of Police
    Torger, is running into walls while tracking the Draven’s Crossing serial killer.
    No matter what he tries to do, he can’t find the clues needed to stop the terror
    that stalks the streets of his city. Things aren’t helped by his attraction to the
    dragon shifter and Draven City News Reporter, Isadora Jones. With political pressure
    and bodies mounting, can he get through all these distractions and find the truth
    before it’s too late?
    Reporter Isadora Jones wants
    to help with the investigation into the serial killer but Torger refuses to let
    her. She decides to do it on her own, but her world goes upside down when the killer
    sets his sights on her. Under Torger’s protection, they start to put the pieces
    together but will it be too late for them?
    Things go from bad
    to worse when another killer appears. Draven’s Crossing just got a whole lot more
    dangerous.
    Buy Links:
    Purple Sword Publications:
    http://purplesword.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=130&zenid=numkviqa0h5fkk6o4i6cqo6m06
    Amazon
    Barnes and Noble
    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-diversions-selena-illyria/1045434820?ean=2940015723694
    ARe
    https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hiddendiversions-1018638-139.html