Decisions, decisions...

This morning I settled down in front of my computer and tried to decide what to work on. I try to spend the morning doing email and "fun" writing (i.e., romance) and then spend the afternoon doing "real work," research and writing in my academic discipline.

Since I have several erotic romance stories in progress at any one time, I tend to work on whatever is uppermost in my mind. Usually either a scene or a character will be pestering me to be written. I find this modus operandi keeps me interested in writing and prevents me from getting bored or burned out. This morning was sort of a blank, though, and I actually considered...vacuuming.

This disaster-in-the-making was averted when I checked my email and had the loveliest message from Terrie in Texas. She had just finished reading The Antaren Affair and took the time to tell me how much she enjoyed it. And she asked for Jholtan's story--Jholt is a secondary character in the novel and I've been trying to decide whether to find him a hot, sexy alien woman of his own. Terrie's exact words were "It is unthinkable that you would not continue with Jholtan's story. Please don't be so cruel." LOL!

Needless to say, Terrie solved my what-should-I-work-on-next dilemma. I think poor Jholt is going to have to crash-land somewhere. With a Vanoran woman. Perhaps her clothes will be torn off in the resulting explosion, but she miraculously remains unharmed. She and Jholt will have to team up to survive. Naked. No, not naked. Maybe partially clothed. Yeah, partially clothed . . .

Reader Comments

This week I got the first reader comments on my book. Happily, they were positive and totally made my day. No, they made my week.

As a new author, it's a scary enterprise to put your first book out there. You've done everything you can and now you just have to hope for the best. If you're a reader and you've just read a book that you really, really like, tell the author! While I can't speak for all authors, I can say that for many of us, it does make a difference. You can comment on their website, you can write a brief review on Amazon, or you can go to the publisher's website and say something positive.

Especially for those of us publishing electronically, web "buzz" really matters. It helps with sales and it tells us, as writers, what you want to see more of as readers.

Plus, comments give authors an emotional and psychological pat on the back that we often desperately need. Because writing is a solo enterprise, it's easy for self-doubt to creep in. Is this story really any good? Maybe everything I've written today should be scrapped. Who's going to want to read this?

Positive comments may come at exactly the right time to help an author get over a tough plot problem. Or give her the enthusiasm to get back to a manuscript that's been languishing.

Bottom line: Comments matter. Really, really matter. Don't think that authors are so important/popular/busy/high-and-mighty that your email or brief review is irrelevant or a waste of time. Your thoughts and opinions matter. And they just might be the right words at the right time to make a big difference.

E-Book Piracy

So my first erotic romance was released on April 14th (yay!). Since I've heard a lot about book piracy on list servs, I figured I'd find out a little bit more about it. I was really surprised to find that four days after my book was released, it's already been pirated! I found it available for (free) download at two separate websites and it had been downloaded at least 30 times already.

It's incredibly discouraging to find that something I just spent four months working on is now free to anyone who wants it. While I'm gratified that several people were interested enough in the book to download it, it's disappointing to know that what they've done will make it more difficult for me to produce future books. After all, the more money I make from writing, the more time I can spend writing. I'm far, far away from supporting myself by writing fiction, but it's something I hope to do in future.

Something else to think about--it's not just authors who are being shortchanged by book piracy. It's also editors, cover models and artists, publicists, agents, and publishers. Pirates make it more difficult for all of us to make a living.