Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Ringing in the New Year with Goals


Happy New Year, everyone!
It's a time when we look back at the last year and look forward to the new year. 
So I thought this might be a good time to update my writing projects on here.

I have big plans for 2015!

I'll be the first to admit that I slacked off a bit in 2014.
I plan to fix that this year with a huge release schedule.

I'm kicking off 2 New Series this year:

1. Male Model Chronicles (contemp romance)
*Justin...releasing Jan
*Lance...releasing May
*Joshua...releasing Oct
(with at least 3 more books to come later)

2. The Broken Series (erotic romance)
*Broken Control...releasing Spring
(with 2 more books to come later)

3. The Martin Ranch Series (romantic suspense)
*Right By Your Side...releasing summer
(with 3 more books to come later)


I'm continuing 2 other series this year:

1. Men of Snowcroft (romantic suspense)
*Snowcroft Safehouse...releasing April
(with 3 more books to come later)

2. Through the Veil (paranormal dystopian romantic suspense)
*Allied in Flight...Fall
(with 6 more books to come later)


And then I have 2 stand-alones planned for release this year:

*Photo Op Serendipity (romantic suspense)...late summer/early fall
*Found at the Library (m/m holiday novella)...Oct/Nov


That's a lot of writing, editing, proofing, and re-writing. 
But I am determined this year to do better (i.e. not spend quite so much time reading...LOL)

And to kick the year off right, Amanda Shofner is going to host a January writing camp on her Writing Sidekick site. It will be a relaxed place for us to go, vent, and find support from other writers and kick the new year off right with writerly goals. 

If you're like me and looking for a kick in the ass to get your yearly writing off to the right start, come join us!!


(I will be hostessing writing sprints on Twitter every Wednesday at noon CST throughout the month.)
@ChristiSnow
#wsidekick



Friday, December 19, 2014

The Book Community is AWESOME!!

I just had my cover reveal for the Male Model Chronicles series. If you didn't see it, you need to go check those beautiful covers designed by JSB Graphic Designs using Shauna Kruse's (Kruse Images & Photography) gorgeous photos....you can find the original post HERE.

The response to sharing my covers was phenomenal and I want to give those bloggers and authors a shout-out, but didn't just want to post links to the cover reveal over and over again (because y'all saw that, right?) And yes, they're gorgeous, but 17 times over...yeah, that can get a little old.

But ALL of these wonderful people are doing great things on their sites day-in and day-out so I'm hoping you will go visit them and just give them some love and praise...and maybe find some new blogs/websites that you want to subscribe to along the way, too!















Thank you so much to everyone who helped me!!
smiles,
Christi



Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Cover Reveal: The Male Model Chronicles Series

A note about the power of inspiration...

I follow a very talented photographer on Facebook, Shauna Kruse of Kruse Images & Photography. Just about two months ago, she posted a photo of Justin James Cadwell, stating that this gorgeous model had yet to be contracted for his first cover. That sent my writing muse into frenetic action and two weeks later, Justin was written and this series was born.

Male Model Chronicles…

The Series Order (although every installment is a complete stand-alone work):
  •       Justin (Justin James Cadwell)
  •       Lance (Lance Jones)
  •      Joshua (Joshua Scott Brown)
This series is a whole new venue for me as a writer. The stories are generally contemporary romance although Lance will delve a bit into my more normal romantic suspense arena....and they're shorter. Most the stories will run about 30-35,000 words. They are meant to be fun and entertaining...and Shauna will make an appearance in each story.

While the names (the male models and Shauna only) used in the stories signify real people, the stories are completely fictional. They in no way reflect true events, incidences, or beliefs by these people in real life. Besides the names, everything else is from the author’s imagination and should be taken as such.


Justin by Christi Snow
releasing January 21, 2015

The Model: Justin James Cadwell
The Photographer: Kruse Images & Photography


Justin…

Tara Malone is having one of those lives. Born to Oscar award-winning actor, Anthony Malone, and model-famous beauty, Veronica Scott, she should have it made. But her curvy figure and out-of-control frizzy red hair are just the start of her many, many issues. Now to make matters worse, she’s started out her week by running over model, Justin James, with her car. She had a lot of fantasies about the cover model, but never did any of them include vehicular assault.



Justin James doesn’t have time for two broken wrists, but neither does his over-achieving family. He can’t open up his fridge or unzip his fly without excruciating pain and no one else has the time to help him. Tara already shot him down at the accident scene, but maybe he can work this so that the curvy bombshell has a reason to hang around for a bit. He’s not above using guilt if it means he gets to know her better.



The first in a new series of novellas inspired by Shauna Kruse’s photography and her beautiful male models. 



The Male Model Chronicles.




Lance by Christi Snow
coming Spring/Summer, 2015

The Model: Lance Jones
The Photographer: Kruse Images & Photography

Lance…
As the owner and CEO of Lancer Industries, Matthew Lancer spends his days in three piece suits and conducting meetings that affect the world financial markets. What the world doesn’t know is that Matthew Lancer has a deep, dark secret. He’s actually super-hot, super-sexy, and covered in tattoos. When he can, he spends his free time letting loose as bad-boy male model, Lance Jones. No one knows and it has to stay that way or Lance will lose the one thing that’s keeping his high pressure life sane.

Andi Kelly writes erotic romance. Day in and day out, she imagines a world filled with bondage, multiple partners, and just a few whips and chains. But that’s the fantasy life in her novels. In the real world, she’s an introvert who spends her days at home living out her fantasies through her laptop. Andi’s finally worked up the courage to ask Shauna Kruse if she can sit in on the photoshoot for Andi’s next novel…with her model-crush, Lance Jones.

But Lancer Industries has a mole and it’s put both Andi and Lance in danger. Lance’s two worlds collide and when corporate espionage meets erotic romance, there’s no telling what might happen.

The second in a new series of novellas inspired by Shauna Kruse’s photography and her beautiful male models. 

The Male Model Chronicles.



Joshua by Christi Snow
coming Fall, 2015


The Model: Joshua Scott Brown
The Photographer: Kruse Images & Photography

Joshua…

December is the time for romance, twinkling lights, and roaring fires in the fireplace. It’s also time for the annual Holiday Fantasy Lingerie show. This year, the show has a masculine twist with the introduction of male models who were once soldiers. 

Joshua Scott Brown has made quite a name for himself as a male fitness model since he got out of the Air Force. But nothing prepares him for the media circus that occurs after he catches one of the female lingerie models during the live show, preventing her from a ten foot fall. Now the lingerie company wants to turn that media coverage into holiday profit by pairing him up romantically with the model. Unfortunately, he only has eyes for Autumn Layne, the publicist who keeps pushing him into another woman’s arms.

The third in a new series of novellas inspired by Shauna Kruse’s photography and her beautiful male models. 

The Male Model Chronicles.


******

Because of the nature of the series, I went with a new cover designer, who just also happens to be one of the models, too...Joshua Scott Brown. (His book will be the third in the series.) Joshua's graphic design business, JSB Graphic Design, is still getting off the ground, but he's been wonderful to work with. Always professional, always positive, and extremely talented...

 
Cover Designer: Joshua Scott Brown
Hometown: Murfreesboro, TN
Occupation: Freelance Graphic Designer
Prior Career History: Air Force Veteran as a F-15 mechanic, Graduate from the University of Tennessee with a degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, Founder of JSB Designs, Current member of the Texas National Guard, Motivational Speaker
Hobbies: Fitness Model, Outdoor Enthusiast, Avid Reader, Gamer, Fitness Competitor




And the source for ALL of the inspiration for the series...
Shauna Kruse's gorgeous photography with 

An Excerpt....
And now, would you like a special little sneak peek into the opening scene for first book, Justin???


Chapter One
How the hell could she be in the suburbs of Seattle without a single coffee shop in sight? Three hours of interrupted sleep wasn’t cutting it this morning. After a night of never-ending calls from her boss making inconsequential little demands, Tara Malone needed caffeine for her system stat. Otherwise she was liable to kill someone.
She opened the new Java App she’d recently created and loaded onto her cell phone. It loaded through the vehicle’s navigation system. Trying to keep one eye on the road, the majority of her focus stayed on the screen filled with the little coffee cup flags signifying blissful, needed, essential-for-the-functioning-of-life, caffeine.
Good, it looked like the app worked within the parameters she’d created. Finally she spotted the coffee shop closest to her location and tried to figure out which road she needed to turn on when her Bluetooth system rang and the screen blanked to read Satan’s Mistress.
“No!” Tara wailed as she scrambled to block the call so she could get back to the Java App. But as the app lit up the screen again, Tara’s car jumped the curb. She slammed on her brakes. Her eyes flew up to the windshield and all she saw was the horrifying view of a gorgeous man crumpling in front of her car as her bumper slammed into him.
“Oh shit,” Tara whispered into the quiet of the car. “I just killed someone.”

She really should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery without caffeine.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Entering the Debate....What's really hurting our Amazon sales?

I'm an Indie author who's been extremely lucky with how well I've done the first couple of years of writing and releasing my books. I know that and I am so thankful for that.

But like so many Indie authors, I rely heavily on my Amazon sales which I've watched tank over the last few months. (To put this in perspective...my royalties last month were pretty much dead on to what they were the first month of my very first release...and I have 9 books out now...that's terrifying.)



And it should be absolutely stated that a lot of that probably rests on my head. My two big releases this year have been out of my normal genre and at first I figured that was a gamble that simply didn't pay off for me. Lesson learned (although I'm not going to stop writing those series, because I love them...I write for me. I'm lucky in that my family doesn't have to rely on my income to get by so I can write what I want regardless.)

But then I began to hear the rumblings from other Indie's about how Kindle Unlimited has slaughtered their sales. Could that really be the root of the problem? I honestly have no idea. Amazon is very secretive about how all their analytics work. To tell you the truth, I'm just thankful that they worked on my behalf that first year especially with my first release when I had no clue, but had incredible sales anyway. Maybe it wasn't all because no one wanted to read my books anymore. Which face it, no author really wants that to be the case.

But then this morning, I was thinking. Maybe Amazon isn't the big, bad evil. Maybe it isn't either of those things. Maybe there is another culprit that can share a lot of the blame for this circumstance so many of us find ourselves in right now.
Note: this graphic is only here as a graphic of the bundles. I didn't want to single out any other author's group anthology. This bundle isn't available in e-book anymore...just print.

But honestly...
Could we be doing this to ourselves with bundle sales?

And here's why I'm thinking this. I'm a reader. I'm a HUGE reader. In fact, I have a book review blog, Smitten with Reading. Right now, I'm trying to get through a 20-book anthology that was released for $.99. That's huge. 20 books. $.99....as a reader, that is an INCREDIBLE BARGAIN! As an author, it makes me cringe.

At the same time that Amazon's Kindle Unlimited happened, we saw a HUGE UPSWING with the offering of these amazing bundle deals. There are new ones coming out EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I read over 400 books a year, but even at that, for me to read all of this anthology will take me better than a week...more like two weeks. And I read every single day. I'm not your typical reader...not anymore.

But back when I was a typical reader, if I had more than 10 books in my TBR pile, I simply didn't buy anymore books.

With these kinds of bundle deals coming up for sale every single day, there is absolutely no reason your typical reader needs to buy anything else...unless an author comes out with something amazing that they simply can't pass up. Authors...no pressure there, right?

And I know the arguments for them...I know. They are only out there for a limited time, they get you as an author in front of new readers, there's a good chance that these bundles will hit the bestseller lists. I have to ask though...in the long run, are we as authors shooting ourselves in the foot?

When we can no longer afford to write, finding new readers is a moot point because you won't be able to afford to write anything for them to read anymore.

This is NOT a condemnation of anyone doing these bundles. In fact, I'm slated to be in one at the beginning of 2015...so I am certainly not throwing stones. As someone who's sales are hurting, I have to consider all aspects and it was just a thought. Another consideration and I thought it might open up an interesting debate. Does anyone else think this has influenced the decline in sales?

Honestly, my personal decline in sales can probably be contributed to all three things...
  1.  Change in genres for my recent releases
  2.  Amazon's changing programs
  3.  Upswing in huge book bundles which fill up reader's TBR's/time for very little money
There's certainly no one answer or solution. 

For me, I plan to just keep writing what I love and hope that my readers follow along with me and read what I write. But I will tell you, I am even more leery of these bundles as an author the more I think about the long-term impact.

And yes, this was a blog post mainly aimed at authors, so....

If you're one of my readers, THANK YOU!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sticking with me and continuing to buy my books. I love you all!!!


I have a ton of new books slated for release 2015. 

If you stuck with me through this rambling post...thank you. I'll have another blog post up next week about the fun stuff...what's coming out soon. And I may just have a cover reveal or two to share along with new story blurbs.  2015 is going to be an amazing year!!

Monday, December 1, 2014

Interview with Christi Snow Romance Author

I don't know how many people are aware of it since he's away at college, but we have a son, Jacob, attending Texas Tech. Over Thanksgiving he was working on a class assignment that required him to interview me. I thought it might be fun to share what he did. The video is basically the story of my writing career.
This was the pic I took of him while he was interviewing me. We were at my parents house in the mountains of NM, so it was gorgeous, but cold. Thanks to my dad who set up the outdoor heater for us while we did this.