Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop of the Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Over 100 erotica authors and kinky bloggers are participating in this blog hop, chatting about hot summer nights and giving away lots of great prizes. This hop is specifically for erotica books, so you like a lotta sex, you’ve come to the right place! Thank you Skye Warren for putting this together.

Grand Prize #1: $100 Gift Card to Fun Online Sex Shop EdenFantasys

Grand Prize #2: Grand Prize #2: Digital Gift Basket with 50 Erotica Books

Visit each stop on the blog hop for chances to win a different individual prize as well as be entered to win one of the grand prizes. Click HERE to visit the other bloggers.

A winner from THIS blog will win a copy of my newest release, MIDNIGHT TREAT. Leave your comment on this blog for a chance to win here and be automatically entered for the Grand Prizes.

ADDING SOME CHILL TO YOUR SEXY THRILLS

There’s nothing much sexier than getting sweaty with your sweetie under the sheets on a hot summer night. But what if it’s too hot? I don’t know about you, but nothing cools my libido more than being too hot (in a temperature sort of way).

Some fun ways to add some chill to your thrills:

1. Prop a fan at the end of the bed, directed toward the mattress. There’s nothing quite like a cool breeze on your naughty bits to fan the fires.

2. Take turns running an ice cube across each other’s body, blowing hot air onto the skin in the ice cube’s wake.

3. Hold crushed ice in your mouth as you go down on your honey. He’ll never be the same. Trust me.

4. Take a cool shower or bath. Together. Then take turns drying each other off, or whatever else you feel like doing as you're naked.

So TMI here, what are your favorite ways to stay cool on hot, sexy nights?

Don’t forget to leave a comment on this blog, then click HERE for a link to the other blogs.

When they're good, they're very very good...

But when they're bad...

Bad boyfriends. We’ve all had them. You know the ones. They come in many variations, from slightly bad to really bad. Maybe he never complimented you, or he belittled you in front of his friends. Or maybe he was nice to you in private, but a dick to you in public—or vice versa. Or maybe he made snide comments about your weight or appearance. Maybe he belittled your sexual skills, even if he was a lame-o in bed himself. Maybe he wasn’t faithful to you. Maybe he hit you.

This blog first appeared on Erotica For All. You can read the rest of it here.

Great review for DEEP BLUE

"This was a beautifully written and mysterious new story that will leave you wanting more."-- Katie from Curse of the Bibliophile blog. You can read the rest of her review here.


For the other stops on my blog tour, please check out CBLS Promotions.

My indie journey, part 5

Midnight Treat has been for sale for 3 weeks now. I made the decision last week to increase the price from .99 to $2.99. I'm still doing little to no promo--I purposefully haven't done much just because I wanted to see the results of doing, um, nothing. :)

Week 3:

Smashwords: 5 copies

Amazon: 18

Barnes & Noble: 21

Total: 44 sales

Week 2:

Total: 37 sales

Week 1:

Total: 24 sales

My sales are low, but I'm averaging about 2 books a day if you look at the total three-week period. That's not bad for a relatively (okay, almost completely) unknown author.

But now it's time to kick it up a notch. I plan to pick one area of promo/social marketing to focus on at a time. I'm currently on Triberr and Facebook and some indie boards, but I am not too active on them. So this week, I will focus on Facebook. I will post a status every day (right now, I'm lucky to post once a week) and will comment and like others' statuses on the Home page each day. I'm also going to start blogging more. How? Not sure yet. What will I blog about? Not sure yet. But this is my week to figure that out.

Will these two things generate sales? Check back next week to find out. I'd love it if you followed me on Facebook, too.

Happy writing. Happy reading.

:)Becca

My indie journey continues, part 4

I considered not writing an update this week, because my sales haven't really sped up, but I started writing this series so anyone thinking about self-pubbing could go through the process, good/bad/ugly, with me.

I'm still not really doing any promo for this story, so the slow sales reflect that. But my goal this week is to come up with a promo plan and actually follow it. :)

My sales after 2 weeks:

Smashwords: 5

Amazon: 14

Barnes & Noble: 18

________________

Total: 37 sales

I learned yesterday that Midnight Treat was approved for Smashwords' premium catalog, which means it'll now be available at Apple, Kobo, Sony. Hopefully, that'll translate into more sales.

WEEK 1

Smashwords: 3 copies
Amazon: 8 copies
Barnes & Noble: 13 copies

______________________

Total: 24 sales

PRICE CHANGE:
After reading some interesting blogs about how Amazon is reconfiguring their algorithms (don't ask what that means, cuz I really have no idea), and how lower-priced ebooks might be affected, I decided to try an experiment. I upped the price of Midnight Treat from .99 to $2.99. Which means I'll get 70% royalties rather than 35%. Which means I'll make more money selling fewer books. But it could also mean I'll sell fewer books period.  I'll keep it this higher price for 3-4 weeks and see what happens, if anything.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Part 3...Dipping my toes in the indie waters

Well, I did it. I uploaded my story and it's now "out there" for everyone to see and buy. :) I was afraid about the learning curve for formatting for nothing. It was actually very easy to upload on the three main sites (Amazon, BN, Smashwords)--all three just require a .DOC file. Each has a few different specifications, but it was quite simple to do. Whew!

Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Smashwords

Available now for just .99!

My problem? I uploaded before really having a promo plan in place. I think I was in such a hurry to get something out there, that I rushed things a bit. So, I'll share with you my numbers for the first week, but keep in mind the only promo I've done is to announce it on my Facebook page and once or twice on Twitter.

My sales after one week:
Smashwords: 3 copies
Amazon: 8 copies
Barnes & Noble: 13 copies

Yes. I'm putting in my 2 weeks notice at work. Not.

Considering I don't really have a name yet, thus nobody knows me (yet), I'm okay with these sales. Did a little part of me hope my story would jump right into the Top 100 lists? Well, of course it did. But I didn't really expect that. Really.

Chocolate & Roses Blog Hop

Welcome to the Chocolate and Roses Blog Hop & Giveaway.

May 5 - 9, 2012

To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment on THIS post, and tell me about a time that someone gave you roses and/or chocolate. Then you'll be eligible to win a copy of my newest release and a Starbucks gift card.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see the links to other bloggers. They're each giving away something on their blogs, too.

Chocolate makes everything better

My story has to do with chocolate and love, but not the romantic kind of love. A few years ago, I was going through a particularly rough time in my writing career. My young teenage daughter knew how much I loved chocolate and remembered me making the comment, "Chocolate makes everything better."

So she had my husband drive her to the local sweet shop, and used her own money to buy me my favorite chocolate. They put the chocolates in a simple white bag. She wrote on the outside, "This will make everything better, Mom."

And you know what? It did make everything better. I still have that bag, by the way. But the chocolates? Long gone, of course.

* * * * *

Here is a sneak peak of my newest story, an erotic romance that releases this week.

The man hooked his hands under the frame and tugged upward. She gasped. He was coming inside! He swung his leg quietly over the windowsill, his foot touching carpet.

“You told me you were on the fifth floor,” he said as he swung his other leg inside and unfolded to his full height. His voice was deep and raspy. His white teeth flashed in the dim light as he grinned.

Oh. My. God. He was in her apartment. “I, ah—” He must have seen her through the window and thought she was the other Marie. Again. Her insides fluttered with possibilities.

Tell him! He stalked toward the bed like a wild animal hunting its prey. He eased the sword from its sheath and leaned over her, holding it above her face. She, Cassie Snow, was smack dab in the middle of another couple’s naughty fantasy. Her eyes widened and need pulsed between her legs. Tell him he’s in the wrong apartment!

“You said you like to be scared,” he growled, right before he clamped a hand over her mouth and pressed the back of her head into the pillow.

He held the long silver blade in front of her eyes. “Make a sound and you’re dead. Understand?” She nodded and immediately stilled. She knew she should tell him he had the wrong girl. But she was always the wrong girl. Was it so horrible that she wanted to be the right girl for a change? Was it so wrong that she wished, just for one night, to be someone else? Someone who acted out naughty role-playing?

Barnes & Noble|Smashwords|Kindle

Available now!

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave me a comment on this post telling me about a time someone gave you roses or chocolate.

I will randomly choose a winner on May 10. Good luck!

*  *  *  *  *

Here is a list of other Chocolate & Roses blog hop participants. Visit their blogs for a chance to win more great prizes!

1. Lea Barrymire 

2. Michele Hart

3. Rose Leigh Woods

4. Carolyn Rosewood

5. Rita Bay

6. JoAnne Kendrick

7. Becca Simone This is me, so you don't need to click here again. :)

8. Siobhan Muir

9. Camile Carson

10. Wendy Soliman

11. Kasey Dean

12. Alicia White 

13. Lynn Tyler

14. Hennesee Andrews

15. Christi Bart

16. Nicole Morgan

17. Missy Lyons

18. Jan Graham

19. Casey Crow

20. Simone Sinna

21. Lea Kinkade