Party Minxes

There's nothing more appropriate in our birthday month than a party and the RNA were happy to oblige us by throwing their summer party on Wednesday evening. And what party would be complete without paparazzi? While Sally Minx might not have come away with the Hessayon trophy she did get papped by the Daily Mail so keep your eyes peeled...
I was in reporter mode and snapped away while Sally schmoozed with some of the Minxes' favourite authors. I even managed to pap the papper and got a very surprised look from him in return! Then I got in on the action and had my photo taken with Sally Minx who is a bit of a rising star at the moment - she's just had her fourth sale and we are all immensely proud of her.  Click here to see (and buy!) her books.

Author Spotlight - Jan Jones

Jan is a leading light in the RNA (Romantic Novelists Association) and we are honoured to have her here with us today.

1. Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

I was already a published writer of short stories and my debut romantic comedy novel Stage by Stage had been published the year before and had won the RNA Joan Hessayon Award. Since then, the publisher has discontinued the imprint, so I’ve moved into Regency territory. I have continued to write short stories for women’s magazines.

2. Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?

Fortunate Wager came from the character of my nearest town, Newmarket, in Regency times, and from Caroline, who was a secondary character in Fair Deception but who wanted a book of her own! She is the daughter of a gentleman trainer, who would like to train racehorses herself. Unfortunately, this is not allowed in 1817 Newmarket.

3. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

Still writing. Still being published. I’d like to move into contemporary-with-laughs territory

4. Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

I recently re-read Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. I wish I’d written most of her books, but this one most of all as it is my favourite

5. Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?

I don’t think so. I always knew I was a storyteller.

6. Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy – or neither?

Neither. I love them. When they are right for the moment in the story, I find the right words.

7. What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?

That first kiss. That’s always the most romantic moment.

8. What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?

Nothing, really. I went into it without preconceptions.

9. What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?

To go with my own voice. My own advice would be to never give up.

10. Tell us about your latest release.

The Kydd Inheritance is the prequel to my Newmarket Regencies. It stars Nell Kydd, desperate to hold together the family estate in the light of her brother’s disappearance and her evil uncle’s machinations. When Hugo Derringer shows up, she would like him to be friend rather than foe, but she is unsure what his motivation is for helping her.

11. What’s next for you?

I’m currently writing the third of my Penny Plain gentle mystery serials for People’s Friend, I’m also writing an atmospheric serial for Woman’s Weekly and the 4th Regency. Also polishing up a contemporary. And I have a sheaf of short stories waiting for a moment to write them. I’m sure there used to be more hours in the day…

The Fortunate Wager and The Kydd Inheritance are both published by Robert Hale. You can find Jan at her website and on her blog, where there are links to all her books, and you can follow her on Twitter.

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Today's Minxy book give-away comes courtesy of Minx Maya. To stand a chance to win, just leave a comment on this blog post. The winner will be announced at the end of the week.

More Winners and some Minxy excitement :-)

The winner of the beautiful necklace Suzanne is giving away is Suzy Doodling. Congrats, Suzy, you will soon be the new owner of that fab jewellery!! Please either contact the Minxes using the email address minxes[]of[]romance[]@[]yahoo.com (remove the brackets and spaces) or leave a comment for us under this post with your contact details and we'll arrange posting your prize out :-)

The lucky winner of Rae Summer's hot historical is L'Aussie--please use the above contact details or otherwise contact Rae through her blog to claim your prize.

Thank you so much to all those who entered and those who are following our blog either here or using Facebook's Networked Blogs--we appreciate you all and are excited to see who will be our Grand Prix winner!!

Our Minxy excitement this week is the RNA Summer Party and specifically the Joan Hessayon award which takes place after the RNA's AGM. The reason we're so excited, of course, is because our own Sally Minx in on the shortlist for the Joan Hessayon award. Sally is attending the party and will be joined by Lorraine who will be cheering her on. Go Sally!!


This week's prize is a scarf from The Rainforest Site offered by Romy Minx. Don't worry if it's cold where you are, we're quite happy to offer the winner a Winter scarf if they'd prefer :-)

The question this week is related to the RNA summer party--can you tell us the date? Leave your answer in the comments below to be in with a chance of winning one of those gorgeous scarves.

Contests Extended

Due to the problems with Blogger this week, we are extending all this week's contests to the end of day on Sunday. Winners will be announced on Monday 16th May.

If you left a comment in order to win please check it's still there, as Blogger ate a lot of comments made between Wednesday and Friday.

To win the Minxy necklace, enter here.

To win a copy of Rae Summers' hot historical novella, enter here.

No Magic Bullet: Promoting Your Book

Today we have a guest blogger, Talli Roland, who made a splash with her debut novel on 1st December by taking on Amazon for a day. We've invited her here today to talk about, unsurprisingly, book promotion.

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A big thank you to the Minxes for inviting me back to discuss book promotion! This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart, after I launched a successful web campaign that propelled my debut novel The Hating Game into the top 100 on Amazon UK Kindle for over eighty days.

I wish I could provide three easy steps to guarantee a book’s success. But the fact of the matter is, what works for one book might not work for another; and what one author is comfortable with, another might not be. One thing is for certain, though: promotion takes a lot of time and effort; it must begin well before the book is launched; and it must be done consistently.

These days, every author is aware of the importance of Twitter, Facebook and blogging. But there’s no point to any of it without using the media consistently. Take, for example, my Web Splash, where I was able to get over 500 people signed up on social media to talk about my novel on its launch day. This didn’t happen overnight. It happened over months and months of interacting with people and time spent building relationships, well before my novel was due out.

Every day, I visit and comment on more than fifty blogs, getting to know people on a personal level. Every day, I’m on Twitter and Facebook. It doesn’t need to take masses of energy and you don’t have to sink endless amounts of time into it, but showing interest and talking to writers and readers is critical to get people on board to help spread the word. And more than that – it’s fun!

Once your book is out in the wild, there are a few things you can do to help get it noticed. On Amazon, make use of tags. By adding tags, you can ensure your book turns up in product searches. The more people who tag you in that category, the higher it will appear in the search. If you can, buy your book with a similar best-selling product, so the two are linked and will show up in ‘customers who bought this, also bought…’. Complete your Amazon author profile and make sure all your books are listed. If your book is on Kindle, you should also consider posting about it in the relevant sections of the Kindle Users Forum (UK) or Kindleboards (US) to let Kindle users know it’s out there.

If sales have slowed and you want to get your book noticed again, I’ve found giveaways a great way to do so. Goodreads allows authors to offer up free books, and giveaways there often attract hundreds of potential readers. While you might be limited to the number of copies you can offer, think of all the potential readers who will hear about your book and may go out and buy it, even if they don’t win. And don’t forget to promote your giveaway on Facebook, Twitter and blogs, too. The more opportunities you can create to get people talking about your book, the better.

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet to book promotion. But by using social media effectively and building relationships, you’ll have a ready-made platform to help spread the word when the time comes.

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Talli Roland has three loves in her life: rom coms, coffee and wine. Born and raised in Canada, Talli now lives in London, where she savors the great cultural life (coffee and wine). Despite training as a journalist, Talli soon found she preferred making up her own stories – complete with happy endings. The Hating Game is her first novel and she is currently working on her second, Watching Willow Watts. Talli blogs here and can be found on Twitter here.