Author Spotlight: Babette James

I want to welcome a special guest Babette James.  She has a new book out, CLEAR AS DAY.  Before we start, maybe you could give us a bit of information about yourself and your book?

I write contemporary and fantasy romance, and I’ve always loved writing and making up stories, beginning back when I used to act out epic fantasy tales with my dolls. (My Barbies had swords and knew how to use them.) I even have a degree in Literature, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I wrote my first full rough draft of romance novel and began gathering up my nerve to pursue publication. I fell in love with writing romance and have focused on that ever since. I’m also a teacher, and I enjoy encouraging young readers and writers as they discover their growing abilities. My class cheers when it’s time for their spelling test! When not writing, teaching or reading, I dabble with bread baking and painting, and try to keep up on weeding the garden beds. I live in New Jersey with my wonderfully patient husband and our three extremely spoiled cats.

Clear As Day is my debut novel, a spicy contemporary romance from The Wild Rose Press about two friends with benefits facing the fears and uncertainties of their changing relationship and is set against the background of the summer heat and cool waters of Lake Mohave. I loved writing Clear As Day, it’s been a story of my heart in many ways, so seeing this story published and receive the 4 1/2 star scorcher review from Romantic Times truly has been a thrill. Being able to hold my book in my hands is a dream come true and I hope you enjoy Nate and Kay’s journey as much as I have.

What inspired the idea for this story?

When I was young, my family took camping trips every summer to Lake Havasu or Lake Mohave and I loved those scenic desert places. Lake Mohave is a reservoir downstream from the Hoover Dam formed out of stretch of the Colorado River by the Davis Dam. Later, when I was in college, remembering those trips, I wrote a short story as an exercise featuring that setting, and that little story was born that would eventually grow into Clear As Day. I loved the juxtaposition of the stark, hot landscape with the cool waters and wanted to play with that particular setting.

While writing this story, did you come across a weird piece of trivia while researching?

Lake Mohave is 67 miles long, but only 4 miles wide at its widest point. The water temperature can be in the low 50’s at the upper end of the lake by the Hoover Dam and as the water opens up into the main lake area some 45 miles south it begins to warm up, and in the summer gets into the 80′s at the surface.

What do you love about being a writer?  What do you hate?

I enjoy the surprises of storytelling. I enjoy seeing a story grow out of a little idea, plots twist and turn, expand and shift, how one story can spawn into a series, and how the characters grow and reveal their lives and find their happily ever after.

I don’t hate anything about being a writer, but I admit some days the pressures involved in promotion can sure take some gloss off the joy of being published.

What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I’ve performed in a marching band at Disneyland once. That was great fun.

What is the best advice you ever got (doesn’t have to be writing related)?

Nora Roberts has said, “You can’t edit a blank page.” This really sums up the best advice I’ve received on writing. Just get those words out and on the page and don’t worry until you’re done. You can fix them later.

One last question, what’s your all- time favourite book and why?

It’s a hard to choose an all-time favorite, but J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings made a great impression on me when I was young. Now I have too many keepers and current favorites to choose just one. I love reading books by Toni Blake, Inez Kelley, and Carolyn Brown, among many others.

Thanks to Babette for joining us here at Author Rescue!

Thanks so much for letting me visit!

Excerpt :

She trailed her fingers over his collection of pebbles on the table, polished by sand, wind and water. Be happy. Be happy. How could she feel so happy and terrified at the same time? You’d think one would cancel out the other.

She would be happy. They would talk. She would sort out her mind.

Don’t worry, be happy.

She slipped on her leather sandals and picked up her sunhat, sunglasses and beach bag. “All set.”

As Kay and Olivia arrived at Spider Camp, Nate was talking and taking casual shots of Dave sitting on his boat. Dave waved. Nate stopped talking the moment she came into sight, his attention fixed on her in a way that rushed heat through her and kicked a happy tumble in her heart.

He waved. “Hey, babe!” He raked his gaze over her. “Stop right there.” He raised his camera and made swift adjustments. “Okay, move.” Rapid shutter clicks followed his order. “Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Slower. Perfect.”

He met her halfway and kissed her hot and hard. “I was about to track you down. You look great.”

“And you look happy.”

“Life is good.” He gave her another quick kiss. “I took some awesome shots today.”

Be happy. Kay smiled. She just needed to practice. Starting now. “Want a beer then to celebrate?”

“Sounds great.” Nate slid an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear, “Damn, I love this suit on you. Why does it always make me want to peel you out of it?” He caressed his hand down over her bottom, holding her close. He softly nipped her earlobe. “Between this one and that yellow-dot one, I am one happy man.”

Desire twisted and heated through her. Wanting him was so easy. That, at least, she never doubted.

“Let’s go swimming, so I can play. Hmm?” he murmured, with more little nips. “Please?”

Go on, practice being happy. Go swimming. Play. Relax. Enjoy. Love.

What was so hard about all that?

Nothing.

Kay tugged the knot of her pareu free and tucked the wrap into his hand. “Okay.” She pulled away from him and strolled off, slipping off her shirt and tossing it, her sunglasses and hat on a chair as she passed, kicking off her sandals as she reached the damp sand.

Running feet pounded up behind her, and Nate scooped her up in his strong arms. He charged laughing with her into the water and threw them both in, the cool shocking splash against her sun-heated skin driving a giggling shriek from her.

Laughter and friendly catcalls rang behind them from their friends.

Nate tugged her to her feet, his body hard and warm against hers. He shook the water from his hair. A big smile, alive with affection and delight, lighted his face. Mischief danced in his eyes. “Come on, follow me.” He swam with lazy strokes toward the moored boats and flipped around, floating on his back, waiting. When she followed, he kicked farther on, putting Lloyd’s and Dave’s boats between him and the shore. She caught up with him. The water here was breast deep. He snagged her wrist and drew her close.

10 Ways to Improve Your Blog

Are you trying to improve your blog? Maybe you’re just in a redesign and need to figure out what you’re doing. When you’re in a rut, it’s easy to say that blogging isn’t worth the effort. Especially when you don’t seem to be getting any kind of traffic. It can get discouraging, but here are 10 ways to improve your blog.

1. Know why you want to blog and who your audience is. When you know this, then you can better tailor what you’re writing. Are you trying to reach out to other writers like you? Or to your readers? What is the reason for you to blog? When you figure this out, you can decide whether you want to be a niche blog or not. Both have positives and cons:

Pros for having a niche blog:

-readers know exactly what you’re all about and what to expect
-you have a focus, a direction

Cons:

-can run out of topics. You can feel “locked in”
-if what you write doesn’t interest your readers, you can be limiting those who come to your site

2. Like what you’re writing about. This is very simple. If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing about then you’re going to be least likely to continue.

3. Have an interesting twist on what you’re writing. What makes you different from all the other blogs out there? What are your opinions? Why should your readers read YOUR site?

4. Have a pleasing site to look at, nothing too bulky (i.e. sidebars that extend past the page). This also goes to no white font on a black background. This shouldn’t have to be said but, I still see it: no music.

5. Your title should tell your reader what the post is going to be about. You don’t need to be creative or cryptic. It should be plain and simple. In other words, you should use keyword rich headlines.

6. You should be posting new stuff constantly.  Be on a schedule.  If your readers never know when you’re going to blog, then they won’t come back often. Not just that, Google sends out spider bots and if it doesn’t pick up a post, it may take weeks or longer before it comes back to your site. The more you post, the better SEO you’ll have. Better SEO= better visibility.

7. Write an optimized first paragraph using the same keywords you used in your post headline.

8. When writing, keep paragraphs short. They should be one or two sentences at most, and then break for a new paragraph. White space is your friend. This is especially true for those readers who go to your blog on their iphone or ipods, etc.

9. Use bullet points and lists as often as possible. This makes it easier not only to read but to remember.

10. Know that it takes time. If you’re not willing to put the hard and persistent effort into building an audience over a prolonged period of time, your best bet might be to look at guest writing opportunities on existing blogs, or websites.

Why Google Analytics is Important for Writers

Do you know who your audience? Who is coming to your website? If you don’t know, you’re at a disadvantage because you don’t know who is engaging with you, where they are coming from or even what they want.

There’s a tool that can help you with that. Google Analytics is free, but powerful. Not only will you know how many people are visiting your site, but also what keywords are being used. If you’re new to Google Analytics, it can be a bit confusing so I thought I’d create a walkthrough on how to set it up.

1. Set up your Google Analytics account. You’ll need this code for your website. When you get the code, you paste it into your page or template. If you’re intimidated by adding the code yourself, WordPress has a plugin you can use that will do it for you. If you click on the advanced settings you have more options. You can track pageviews per tag/category and if your old posts are still getting views. It may take some time for analytics to receive the information from your site.
2. If you’re not still logged into your Google Analytics profile, do this now. You should have the new version (you’ll know if it says you can still use the old version as default). To get to the page you want, you need to clikck on the Standard Reporting tab. This is where you’ll find all the information. Become familiar with your left sidebar.

AUDIENCE

Overview- You’ll find here how many people have come to your site, the # of page views, unique views, etc within the stated period of time.

Demographics- Under demographics, you can find out where your audience is coming from and the breakdown of info. The most useful item here will be custom variables. This is where you’ll be able to see what people are looking at. What interests them based on page views.

Behaviour- Are most of the people who visit new or are they followers? Here you’ll find the percentage for both, as well as the frequency of visits and how long they stay on your site.

Browser- What browsers are people finding you on? Knowing this breakdown is important because do you know where you fall on the SEO scale over there? Are you on the first page or the second? Sites often look different on various browsers. Do you know what yours looks like? Use this nifty site to see how your homepage looks, paying particular attention to the sites where you know your audience is coming from.

Mobile- Are people looking you up on their phones and ipods? You should know this and how your site looks on them.

TRAFFIC SOURCES

Overview- Where are your sources coming from? Are they finding you through a search engine? Through a referral site? You can find here what keywords people are typing in to find you and the referral sites.

Sources- Under here you can find where your traffic is coming from and what page they’re landing on.

CONTENT

This is an important area to pay attention to because it will tell you what pages people are looking at the most. You can also find where people are landing on your site and where they are exiting.

By knowing your audience, you can better set up your SEO and figure out new ways to get and keep your visitors on your site as long as possible.

 

Do you use Google Analytics? What do you like or not like about it?

Indie Year One: Judy Powell

ABOUT ME:
Thanks for inviting me to be a guest on your blog. It’s great to be here!
Here’s a little bit about me: I adore books, anything and everything about them. I love to learn so you’ll often find me with a text book or the Oxford English dictionary in hand. Most of all, though, I love to read romance novels. My all-time favorite? ‘The Wolf and the Dove’ a historical romance by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Lots of conflict, a consummate alpha male and a feisty heroine who keeps him on his toes. What more could a romance lover want? My love of reading naturally led to my writing my own collection of spicy romance novels: ‘Hot Summer’, ‘Hot Chocolat’, and ‘Some Like It Hot’. I’ve also written a historical novel, ‘Coffee, Cream and Curry’ which won an award in a national writing competition. Finally, I’m mommy to a nine year old son, a hamster and a budgie. There’s lots more to tell but I won’t do it all here. For additional information just visit my website, www.judypowell.com.

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN A YEAR AGO:
The number one thing I wish I’d known a year ago is what a blessing e-books and self-publishing really are. I had heard about the Amazon kindle store but kept plugging away, selling my hard copy books at events and shows, staying out for several hours at a time and sometimes not getting home until one o’clock in the morning. Then a writer friend told me about how well she was doing selling her books in e-book format. I didn’t give it a try until September of last year but once I did I never looked back. No more long days at events and long nights promoting my books. Now I can do all my promotion from the comfort of my home. No production cost (outside of the minimal cost of a book cover), no shipping cost, no storage cost and no more lugging heavy boxes of books from show to show. Thank God for the e-book revolution!

Another thing I wish I’d known was how to write for the e-book market. Having written books for the traditional paper book market I thought simply converting those novels to e-books would have done the trick. Not so. I soon found out that the majority of readers of e-books, particularly those I encountered in the Amazon kindle store, wanted books that were shorter and faster paced. They wanted to be thrown directly into the action. The less time spent on set up or back story, the better. Since purchasing a kindle my own reading style has changed, where short and sweet are well received and the lengthier novels sit in my book list and I hardly ever get around to reading them. I’ve since adjusted my writing style and go for suspenseful quickies over longer tomes.

Finally, I wish I’d known how best to promote my e-books on Amazon.com. I’ve spent hundreds on paid ads, many with little impact on sales. Then I tried something different, something free – I gave the books away in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Program. Over thirty thousand people downloaded ‘Hot Summer’ over a 2-day period and after that my sales took off. The next day my novel hit the # 4 position on the contemporary romance chart and # 47 in the entire Kindle store. Nothing has enhanced visibility for ‘Hot Summer’ like giving it away for free.

So, in summary, my key learnings within the past year are:
- If you haven’t yet joined the e-book revolution, get on board now.
- If you’re writing for the e-book market make sure the story grabs the reader from the beginning. Make it fast paced and not so long that it is tiring.
- Be sure to include freebies in your marketing plan.

I hope I’ve given you information that you can use to make your own writing journey a success. And if you’d like to unwind with a romance novel and a glass of wine you can have a peek at Hot Summer. Here’s what it’s about:
A hot-tempered spitfire and a sexy, arrogant man – put them together and sparks fly!

After her first embarrassing encounter Summer Jones vows to stay away from suave record producer, Lance Munroe. But then she ends up working for the man. Her quick temper and sharp tongue keep landing her in hot water with him but no matter how hard she tries she can’t deny her growing attraction for him. Then they go on a business trip to Jamaica – and her world is turned upside down.

Lance is intrigued by the feisty woman who practically tells him off the first time they meet. When they begin working together he realizes how much he enjoys the challenge of taming the little tigress. But, before he knows it, he’s the one caught in the snare of passion. The tables are turned – the tigress has tamed the lion.

If you love the sizzle of a romance between two strong-willed individuals, follow Summer and Lance from Chicago to Jamaica and be swept away in the thrill of their hot summer.

Check out Hot Summer on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Summer-ebook/dp/B005OTKXKO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331866446&sr=1-1

To the readers of authorrescue.com/blog/ have a great day and ‘Happy reading!”

SEO how-to for authors

We’ve all heard that SEO is important for marketing to get people to find you. But just how important is it for authors? Do we really need to worry about that as well? The easy answer: yes. It may seem unimportant but you want to do whatever you can to help those who aren’t your readers yet to find you.

How will they find you if they aren’t looking for you? By searching keywords into their browser, whether it’s Google or whatever. But first, you need to get associated in the page rankings with those words. What words? Words that aren’t your penname or book title (if someone’s Googling your penname, then they already know of you and they aren’t the people you’re targeting right now). Choose words that describe your book. Think like your target audience. What could they type in for looking for a certain kind of story?

What describes your writing or books?  Take some time and write out a list.

Now that you have a list, what next?

1. As much as possible, whenever you do a guest blog or interview you should use those keywords. Whenever you do, you should link back to your site (or book), thus helping to associate yourself with them. You want those links directing people to you. The more places you link back to you, the more effective you’ll be.
2. Use the keywords on your website (especially in the first paragraph of the content). Even if without links, Google will pick it up. Don’t overdo this, however, or duplicate content.
3. Page titles shouldn’t be generic. Try to make them relevant to your book.
4. Categories. When you blog or create a page, what categories are you tagging? You should have some of the words from your list.
5. While we’re all told we should have an url based on your penname, having one with a word or so from the list can help with your SEO. Everytime someone finds your site based on it, it’s an extra point that helps elevate your SEO. So what can you do? Having an alternative url direct to your site could be useful (i.e. if you write a series, having an url based on it and redirect to your site)
6. Link out. By adding links out to other pages, other sites, you’re extending the reach of your post by providing more content to readers. This can also mean linking to other posts you’ve written that are related.
7. Write good content and don’t stop.