Review: Blood Purple by Ashley Nemer

Blood Purple 
Synopsis: In a world we think we know, live other races entirely hidden from the mortal perspective. Creatures of legend, of fable and myth, their very history and nature have allowed them to walk side by side with humans since time immemorial. They are warriors, they are hunters, and they are Algula. Vampire. And in their own midst, a battle is brewing for supremacy, for dominance, that can and will affect all around them. Old hatred never dies and vengeance is a fiery sword that cuts a bloody swath.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Okay so, it's a good thing that I was warned that this was not a romance when I picked it up. I don't know why, but every time I saw this series I thought it was PNR...boy was I wrong. Ms. Nemer is not afraid to kill people, no spoilers promise. She delivers a wonderful storyline about a civil war between the Alugla vampires. Nemer is not afraid to show the dark side of war. It is not all flowers and happy ever afters in this book. I loved Nikole off the bat, though she makes rash choices she's determine to be a strong female and not let her brother's paranoia and over protectiveness get in the way of what she wants: proving that she can fight with the soldiers. Zayn is also very rash which is why him and his sister clash heads so much, they are both stubborn but I found their personalities believable. I love the relationships that developed, but like I said, this isn't a PNR so that is not the main focus of the story.

The sex in this is decent, and I'm trying not to be bias because I've read some of Nemer's newer works and this just doesn't compare. For a first novel it was decent, the writing style is different than I normally like. If seeing different points of view in a single paragraph is not your thing than this won't be for you. It took a little getting used to, but now I expect it for the series. The ending made me go an snatch the other book right back up. I was SO mad at the author for where she ended it....but that's all I'm saying. 

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Heat Rating: hot (mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching) 

Links: Amazon BN Goodreads

About the Author

Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a 1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they

were younger.

Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life; they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.

Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)

Links!

www.artofsafkhet.com

www.ashleynemer.com

www.nikibecker.info 

http://www.facebook.com/ashleynemerauthor

http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/ashleynemer

www.amazon.com/author/nikibecker

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2897381-ashley-nemer

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22194803-niki-becker

Egotism and being an Elitist Part 1.

You've all heard me preach about ego before on how it can hurt your image, but lately I've seen and trend in the author world where an author is better than another author or a group of authors. Is that vague enough for you? Yes, some authors have better writing than another author, this is clear by quality and reviews. But I'm referring to the on going battle of traditional publishing vs indie publishing. You've seen it all over the internet, but here let me pull some quotes for you so we can take a look on how the problem is not just on one side of things.

"To me, it seems disrespectful … that a 'wannabe' assumes it's all so easy s/he can put out a 'published novel' without bothering to read, study, or do the research," said Grafton. "Learning to construct a narrative and create character, learning to balance pace, description, exposition, and dialogue takes a long time. This is not a quick do-it-yourself home project. Self-publishing is a short cut and I don't believe in short cuts when it comes to the arts." -Sue Grafton (pulled from this article)

"The complete opposite is true," he said. "Self-publishing means finding your own proofreader, finding your own editor, finding your own cover designer (or designing your own), doing all your own marketing and sales work, etc. Having a publisher is lazy as all you need to do is write a half-acceptable book and allow your publisher's editor to make it sales-worthy. Self-publishers must do it all – we have no one else to pick up the slack." -Adam Croft (pulled from this article)

Now, I take issue with both of those comments. What? You expected me to come out fighting for the indie author and not disagree? Let me break down my thoughts. 

Grafton has a point, anyone can publish on amazon and yes, there is a lot of crap out there. I have to disagree with her that it is a short cut. Those who are truly indie-authors (not doing this for a hobby, but to make a living or trying to make a living) so not see it as a short cut. In fact, it's not a DIY project, it's a job that takes dedication and time. Lots of time. 

That being said, we have the other side of things in response to Grafton. A best selling indie author claiming that having a publisher is lazy. I disagree with him on that. It's not lazy, I'm a hybrid author (I do both indie publishing and traditional publishing) guess what, unless you're a huge name author you don't get your marketing paid for and we all know that is a ton of work. Okay, sure so you have an editor, but guess what though they tell you what should be changed and make suggestions, you still have to have a damn good book going in or you don't snag that publisher. 

But Grafton isn't the only one who has problems or issues with the indie populations. Kim Harrison had this to say (in regards to price fixing, but still...)

"...force books that are created within the scope of a publishing house to adhere to the same price points as those created by independent authors who are not all paying for marketing, placement, cover artists, proofing, and the building to house these people, not just for their book, but all the books within the publishing house. Independent authors can afford to charge a lower price because they do not have these things. Indeed, they should be allowed to charge a lower price to garner the attention that they miss by not being associated with a big six publisher. But forcing those who _are_ paying for marketing, cover artists, proofing, ect, not just for their book, but others in the publishing house..." (taken from here)

I must wonder who Ms. Harrison thinks pays for all that when it comes to indie-authors. Yes, I understand that there are overheads that publishers must cover and honestly the price fight is a topic for another day. But that comment makes me wonder...do traditionally published authors really know what goes into indie publishing? 

Here she is again "You can’t ask someone who has been working their entire life at crafting words into cohesive stories to be valued equal to someone who has been at it for two years. Would you work at a job for 20 years, then accept a new, forced salary commensurate with the mail room guy? No. Of course not." (taken from here)

In my free lance work I've read books that are just as good as a big press author who plan on going indie. I've ready authors who have been at it for years, are big press published and it's crap. My point is, quality is found everywhere. Not just in big publishers, not just in indies. I've been writing since high school, it's a passion, who is she to say someone who has the same passion for the craft isn't to be valued equally?

This is a challenge we face as indie authors. Elitism from traditionally published authors. This is a problem this wall needs to be broken down to where we are all just authors. Now don't die of shock, but this is also a problem on the indie side of things. I'll be covering that my next post. So stay tuned. 

The Free Book

This is another article written from experiences from my other personality. I won't be sharing exact numbers, but I'll be telling you about when I put book 1 up as free as a loss lead. With my particular series, I had started out with a free short story. It hit page 1 on most downloads for it's genre on Smashwords, but it didn't do a whole lot on Amazon. I was optimistic thinking that these insane amount of people who downloaded it were going to buy book 1, boy was I wrong.

I released book 1, my second novel (my first novel was a standalone) and sold very few copies in the first month. That was over a year ago now. Since then I've released two other books in the series. Sales were down and despite doing many of  the things I had read in the marketing books I wasn't improving. A good friend told me to follow the loss lead idea. Put the first book free. I was reluctant. Why should I do that? I shouldn't have to discount my work for people to pick it up. So I waited. When I was getting ready to release the third book, she gave me that final push.

"Get to it."

What did I have to lose? It wasn't selling anyways, it's not like I'd be missing out on money. So I took a deep breath and changed it, soon it became permifree on Amazon and BOOM it made it to the top 20 for free in several categories. I was floored. So that meant all those people would by my second and third book right?

Well, not right off the bat, but let me tell you something. It was worth putting that for free. My numbers doubled the first month and just kept climbing from there. From looking at my royalty statements, I can tell the month that I put the book for free, because my numbers jump. So yes. I think it's worth putting the first book for free. Some people are saying that it's loosing it's effect, but I really think that it's just as effective. Suck it up buttercup, if that first book isn't selling well, what do you have to lose.

Am I going to do this for my other series under that name, I sure am!

I fell off the marketing horse....and it hurt.

Not to mention I'm late with posting this. I'm sorry, my life got crazy (though I don't have any broken fingers like Mia, sooo really I have no excuse). This is another post about marketing and how important it is. Are you tired of us talking about it yet? Yes? Too bad.

So here's the deal. I read a marketing book and thought, oh yeah these are great ideas, but I'm doing most of them. But then over the past month, I noticed one thing here and there dropping off. Eventually I was just left with twitter and I let that die too. A few weeks ago, I sat down and asked myself, why? Why did I let it just drop off, I was doing well, the numbers were are least moving. What on earth was I thinking?

The conclusion? Not enough hours in the day. Like I mentioned, my life is crazy, it's gotten crazier since my last post on how I work my schedule. How? Try this on for size: I start a nanny job tomorrow, I'm attending school, and I'm freelancing. Yep. That's just the addendum to my list, I'll spare you the rest of it. So what did I decide to do? I had to sit down and make a choice:

Do I let myself drowned and fade into the background? Or do I start kicking and swimming again? I'm choosing to swim. The last two weeks I've pretty much ignore all my social media, except for little updates here and there, but no true marketing. I have a notebook now, on one side is one personality's marketing plan, on the other is the other personality. I do this because each pen name caters to a different cliental. What's in the notebook?

A schedule for Twitter: Themes for each day, what will be advertised and at what times, and a meme to follow for the day. *note* I only actually advertise every 3rd post or so. Why? So it doesn't seem like I"m spamming people, because that's not fun, it annoys everyone.

A schedule for Facebook: Similar to Twitter, I have Themes for each day, what to advertise and times. I get to work a little more freely with this one because I'm not limited to characters.

Google +: A bit on what I want to do on G+ every day.

You see the three above are very similar, yes, but each theme is different everyday and do not mimic each other. Would it be easier to have the same post on every social media, yes, but as a reader that annoys me...if it annoys me, it annoys someone else. So that being said, I don't do it that way.

What else is in the notebook? Current books, current number of reviews, current number of followers or likes. Why? So I can see where I need improvement or where the numbers are actually moving. There's also a spot for what I want to do on my blog. That is an important factor. I also have goals, because without them I have no sense of achievement for all my hard work.

WOW! But you said there's not enough hours in the day! It's true, there's not, but I'll be pre-scheduling everything I can so it runs without me. You may think that's cheating, but here's the deal...until I can hire someone to do it for me, I'm doing it that way. I'll still be checking in to respond to readers/followers questions and comments, but scheduling saves me a ton of time.

So that's how I'm getting back on the marketing horse! Here's hoping I can hit those goals!

Take Overs: Worth it or Not?

So I love doing facebook author take overs, why? Does it sell a ton of books, well no, but what it does do is add to the exposure I already have. As my other self I recently took part in a huge take over, we're talking 20+ authors, almost a week worth of days, and even special graphics. I was stressing because it seemed that I couldn't keep up with the others and every time I turned around I felt like I had missed something. There were a ton of bloggers looking for the authors to interview, people who needed all my information (and since I'm a slacker, I don't have my media kit together....). It was crazy and I remember telling my husband, "gosh I hope this is going to be worth it." Out of all the take overs I've done, it's probably the one that helped most. I gave out prizes, had a great time, and met so many new people, readers and authors.

Not long after that take over, I did my release party and holy cow was I surprised. My attending number doubled from the last release party and more than half were names I didn't know. NEW people. What's better is those new people came from that last take over and this was the first true introduction to my series that they had gotten. Many of them one clicked the free book and others went a head and bought all three. It was fantastic and guess what, they spread the news too. It was great and then they followed me to an event that I only took over for an hour and hosted the two days.

So my opinion, yes they are worth it, but I think like all social media events it's something you need to keep up on. Constant exposure, also giveaways are cool, but be careful not to break the bank or give out so many ebooks that no one is going to want to actually buy the book or books. What was great, I had one person who really wanted a copy of Criminal Behavior and didn't win it...so what did she do? She went right out and bought it! Woohoo! Make sure you keep it fun, don't make it all about your books, talk to your readers and audience. They know you're an author, that's why they are there. Tell them a bit about yourself and your books, give them a link and then let them discover things from there.

So when it comes to your tools of marketing, add take overs to that list.

What If You Can't Write?

What to do when you can't write?

I'm not talking about writers block, I'm talking about what happens when there is a physical reason that you can't write.

As of right now i am pecking away at my keyboard with my left hand because my right hand is currently out of commission. It's my dominate hand which means the world just got a ton harder. There is no "choosing or learning to be ambidextrous" you either are or you are not, I'm in the latter group.

So what do you do if here is a physical reason why you can't write. Let's face it one handed pecking is going to be a long and exhausting process for a 60k word manuscript. Hell I'm already exhausted just from writing this little amount. Pen and paper won't work, because like I said, the injury is to my dominate hand. So... Here are my options: 1) don't use my hand and allow it to heal after everything gets done to it and 2) try to invest in a speech to text software for my computer.

Dragon is what I'm going to go with, haven't gotten it yet, but I'm ordering it as soon as possible. As soon as I have it in hand (ha! See what I did there) I'll give you all a review. As I wait for the software and even after I get it I will be slowing down, there are several other factors that are involved and slowing down, lessening the amount of stress I have on my plate, and letting myself heal are all very important to getting better.

In the mean time, how would you over come an obstacle like this? Would you try to train yourself to use your other hand? Try a speech to text tool? Any other ideas? Let us know, we'd love to hear them.

The Heart and Soul of Indie

I thought I'd do a post on what being indie (well in my case a hybrid) means. This isn't a 'I can do what I want!' speech. No, this is me laying it all out for you on why I took this road....

When I was thirteen I moved in with my grandmother. Imagine this, very Catholic, very old-school, and very traditional. There was nothing wrong with that of course, because I grew up well and I have great value. (Of course she'd probably die if she realized what I was writing now.) By fifteen I'd completed my first novel and wanted to look into publishing. I remember I was so proud of myself. I'd done the research and knew what needed to be done. Then I took the idea to my grandmother. Her words were, "It'll never work, publishing is too expensive and you'll never be good enough."

It stung. It hurt and I never mentioned it to her again, but I didn't give up. I continued to write and looking into publishing. In 2006 I completed and polished a novel and started to query, I had a few full manuscript requests, but nothing came of it. Now I can admit that it really wasn't ready for publishing. Now at this point some of you are thinking "Oh, so you turned to indie publishing because you weren't good enough for traditional." Mmm no, not really. At that time e-readers were just popping up and self-publishing was still not an option for me.

I had almost given up completely when I got a short story published. I got a few inboxes at that point wondering what else I had out, but at that point I had nothing. My husband made me sit down and make a choice...

It was then I realized what indie could do for me, do for my readers. Writing is the heart and soul of Indie. Not marketing, not fame, not money. Writing, storytelling, characters, the craft. Yes there is a lot of crap out there, but there is a lot of good writing out there too. One thing I love about the indie authors is that you get to see the author grow from book to book. If they are willing to open their hearts and minds to feedback and learning. I wouldn't have come this far without feedback, honest feedback, and sometimes blunt feedback.

But when I have a conversation with a reader that's when I know that I've written something good. A store that makes someone want more, that they can't put down that they love. That is the heart of indie. Why is this important? Because if you're going to go indie you need to understand where it all starts at. It starts with heart and a good story. One that has been polished, one that's been beta read and is ready to published. I will say it again. The heart of indie is a good story.