Craving More (Tiger Nip) by @Brandy_W (Brandy Walker) – Book Review by ROz
Find Brandy Walker – Twitter, Goodreads, Blog, and Facebook
Brandy first let me read this book about a month ago. I was excited, to say the least, that she actually let me. I had been bugging her to let me read something she had wrote – anything – but I never got anything but bits and pieces over the years. It’s ok, I can dig it. Writing is a piece of you, and despite how vain I personally am (I’m not, really…I’m very nice), it’s still scary as hell to share that piece with someone else who might read it and think, “…ew.” I’m thrilled Brandy finally decided to take the leap and jump into the Indie-publishing world. With that being said, anyone can publish, but it doesn’t mean anyone should. I, for one, and damn happy Brandy finally did.
Craving More begins with Corrine Hart. Simple yet elegant, average yet beautiful – she is your common variety female. No perfect woman (because really, that gets old) with a slim waist and ruby red lips. She is not grandiose in her completely unaware beauty, but a fabulous cook with integrity, respect, and absolutely no compunctions about wanting Jett Montgomery-Murphy, or Murph. Hesitant, yes, and not bold enough to pursue the handsome ‘Hunky Cupcake Guy’.
Initially the story starts off without missing a beat. Girl is single and alone. Girl wants boy, but figures he’s too beautiful for her. Turns out, boy most certainly wants girl, and not just for her cupcakes. The catch? Brandy creates a wondrous world of feline fancy – they are cats, and not the Persian kitties, but large tigers, panthers…the kind that are 900+ lbs and could eat your head in a single bite. The first mention that these are a different kind of shape-shifting humans almost confused me at first – Brandy weaves the little side note as almost an afterthought, but you soon escape into the beauty and rituals of this created universe, and I was very much impressed.
Corrine’s story starts with her bakery – something she built herself and she’s very much proud of establishing herself. As I said, Corrine and Murph hit it off and tangle, much to her surprise. The book is pretty much Corrine dealing with how she feels about Murph, who he really is, and the baggage he appears to be carrying. The POVs are from both Corrine and Murph, and you get to see a very real human side to instant attraction vs proper courting, or rather, if she should even bother. Without spoiling it, I enjoyed the chase as well as the romantic scenes, which are not done over the top. I do wish it was a little longer (it is novella sized), but I am looking forward to learning more about the supporting characters like her brother, her best friend and roommate, as well as the intricacies of the feline hierarchy that they live by.
Wholeheartedly recommend Craving More by Brandy Walker for the creative universe and because she’s my oldest friend. Biased? A little, but it’s still a very good read, definitely worth the money.
Find Brandy Walker – Twitter, Goodreads, Blog, and Facebook
#BloodMemory: Book 2 incoming…should probably come up with a title.
So in hopes of releasing something in June like I had planned all year, I’ve decided to publish the next installment of Blood Memory: TBA (that’s not really the title, I just haven’t figured out one yet lol). Here’s the dealio – this next book (approximately 40k words) starts off immediately after book 1. It was originally written to bridge the gap between what would have been book 2, but looks to be book 4, now – ‘Awake’.
Book 2 follows the characters from Book 1: Viv, Simon, Hammer, and the rest of the Pipers during the NYE event being held in the premier hotel Grand Piazza located downtown in ‘The City’ (nope, no name yet). Lots of explosions, deaths, intrigue, and a realization with some answers, but definitely more questions. Rough draft is DONE, just need to flesh her out a little. Publication will hopefully be by June 30th.
Becoming a book tour host or schlepping your #blog
So I’m trying my hand at book tour hosting. I’ve googled quite a bit searching for blogs that promote these types of tours, and I’ve noticed a few things.
~ Web design is lacking. They’re either cookie cutter word press or reminiscent of early 1990 html. God, I’m such a snob, lol.
~ There are A LOT (two words) of romance blogs out there.
~ Anyone can self-publish and spend money on marketing. (Although some probably shouldn’t spend that hard earn money.)
I fall into that last point: I self-published, granted I didn’t do a book tour, although I will try with books 2 and 3. It’s hard to find similar book touring blogs that have books I actually want to review, and honestly I’ve had to read some below par books. In fact, since I’ve cannon-balled head first into the tsunami that is social media promotion, I’ve collected hundreds of free books from fledgling (and established) authors. The market is flooded with ’50 Shades of whatever’ wannabes and poorly conceptualized plots. Seriously, it costs nothing to publish a book on Amazon, and wow – you can tell.
Book touring gets your blog noticed, somewhat. If you aren’t blogging daily, no one’s going to be interested, and that is harder than you think – coming up with content that isn’t just copy/paste drivel from twitter. Finding quality book tour blogs is extremely difficult. I’ve seen tour lists with obscure (like my own blog) websites, or just unable to even do a daily tour. It is what it is, though. The internet makes it easy to do all these things, except make you famous.
#itunes doesn’t want my book because I don’t have an #Apple cpu
Thanks to Cracked.com
I would have never noticed this if it wasn’t for Cracked’s article on The 4 Most Weirdly Outdated Corporate Policies.
But more specifically…
Huh. I have an iPhone, iPad, iTouch (or whatever they’re called), but no mac computer. No wonder I had such a hard time trying to upload to iTunes. I got held up at getting the contract agreement, and after emailing support (who never responded), I just gave up and went other retailers to distribute my book.
Seriously…fuck you, Apple.
Guest post – Why your book isn’t selling.
Courtesy of WiseLinkBlog
1. You Haven’t Set Goals
2. You Don’t Have a Plan
3. You Aren’t Thinking Long-Term
4. You’re Not Interacting with Your Readers
5. You’re Marketing to the Wrong Audience
6. Your Efforts are Automated & Lack Flavor
7. You’re Not Using Multiple Sales Channels
8. You Don’t Know Your Book’s Selling Points
9. You’re Not Present
10. You Look Desperate
No, number 10 isn’t aligned wrong. I think this is the most important of the 10 rules listed. Since joining Twitter and trying to be active, I’ve tried to follow other writers or people with similar interests, and I’ve noticed – there are some seriously desperate fuckers out there. I mean…wow. I follow over 600 right now with 300 or so following me. I try to retweet self-publishing news or witty comments (because I know no one is really listening, hehe), but I’ve noticed some other authors (self-published or otherwise) only ever PLUG THEIR OWN SHIT.
More power to them, but wow.
Tweets with insincere sounding review blurbs, every single tweet a link to buy their book, or a combination of both. Sadly, I have unfollowed a handful of authors who do this DAILY. I tweet maybe 1-5 times a day – usually random thoughts about whatever or writing, but there are people with upwards to 50,000 – you read that right…TENS OF THOUSANDS of posts of the same thing. I’d rather not sell a book than be that desperate. My posts are grumpy lately, lol. Food for thought.
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ROz
Published paranormal author, blogger, and awesome brown girl.