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Big, huge thank you to all my readers

Wow, you guys are so amazing! My digital only release of Colters’ Daughter hit the USA Today bestseller list AND it also hit the NYT ebook bestseller list. All because of you and your enthusiasm. You have my heartfelt thanks. I couldn’t do this without your support and it means the world to me.

Hitting the lists with an ebook is more exciting than I can possibly express. I LOVE ebooks. I love epublishing. Epublishing has allowed me the freedom to write stories that might not otherwise be picked up by a more traditional publisher and they’ve been embraced by you the reader and YOU have made the books successes. Not me. I can write to my heart’s content but that doesn’t make them bestsellers. Only readers can do that and I’m so appreciative that you’ve made MY books bestselling titles.

The Colters’ Legacy books have been special from the beginning. Colters’ Woman struck a chord with so many readers and you made it by far my most successful, bestselling title of any books I’ve written. I owe much to the readers who took a chance on me several years ago when this story came out. You bought it, you talked about it. You then bought my subsequent releases and you’ve remained so steadfastly loyal and I simply do not have the words to tell you how much I love each and every one of you.

Epublishing will always hold a special place in my heart no matter where my career takes me and I’ll never forget that in a lot of ways, Colters’ Woman is responsible for much of my success.

Thank you for buying and supporting Colters’ Daughter! I know it’s different from the other two books in the series and I appreciate your willingness to give it a chance anyway.

Because of you an EBOOK landed on those bestseller lists and because of you, a whole lot more digital only authors will climb those lists too.

Much love,

Maya

A note about future Colters’ Legacy books

First I’d just like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has purchased or plans to purchase Colters’ Daughter. I truly appreciate each and every one of my readers and love you for allowing me to do something I love more than anything. Because of you, Colters’ Daughter climbed all the way to #2 on the Barnes and Noble bestseller list for all books. It also dipped well below the 100 mark at Amazon and it’s a bestseller at the Samhain store as well.

Many of you have been asking if this is the last book in the Colters’ Legacy series.

I should first say that I honestly never had any intention of writing books beyond Colters’ Woman. It took me a few years to come around on that point after many, many and I mean MANY reader emails asking me to please write more about the Colters.

So I’ll tell you now, that I’ve had plans to write at least one more book since I decided to write Colters’ Lady and Colters’ Daughter. :)

For those of you who’ve asked about loose ends or just wanting a feeling of completion to some issues that were raised in Colters’ Lady or Colters’ Daughter, this book would sort of tie all that together in what I hope is a satisfying conclusion.

I hope you’ll understand that I simply cannot bring myself to write future generations of Colters because it would mean saying goodbye to Holly, Adam, Ethan and Ryan and I would be devastated to write a book in which they were no longer alive. I couldn’t do it! It would break my heart. For me they will always live in my heart and mind and on the pages of my books.

So the story I’ve planned to write is about the Colter family as a whole, not just one particular relationship. It would include Holly and her men as well as Lily and hers and of course Callie and Max.

I would love to say I’ll have the book ready by this fall but I can’t promise. Since I want to title it A Colter Christmas, I’d love to have it out no later than November, and I will try very hard, but I simply can’t guarantee it.

But I just want to say that without all the wonderful emails over the years about Colters’ Woman and the nonstop requests to write more books about this family, I would have honestly never written Colters’ Lady or Colters’ Daughter, so this final book would be my way of saying thank you to all my readers.

I love you all to pieces!

Maya

Things you need to know about Colters’ Daughter!

There always seems to be a mixture of confusion and chaos when I release an ebook through Samhain. So hopefully this post will make some things clear and help out those of you readers who might experience difficulties trying to purchase this book.

First and most importantly. This is NOT a print release. Not yet. I thought I’d make this clear on my website but I still get a lot of people asking about the print copy. Colters’ Lady which released in ebook format last June isn’t even available for print yet. It comes out in June of this year. Colters’ Daughter will release FIRST as an electronic book and will then be released as a print book in early 2012. I know this isn’t good news to those of you who only read print books, but this has ALWAYS been the case with my Samhain releases.

Because I know many of you hate having to wait so long for the print release, I asked my publisher to release my next book in print and electronic format on the same day. They have agreed and so this August when Long Road Home is released, you’ll no longer have to wait for the print copy. You can get either on release day.

NOW for perhaps the most frustrating part for those of you who have waited so patiently for the release of Colters’ Daughter. I’ve had many, many, MANY inquiries as to why places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble don’t have the ebook available for pre order. I can only give you information based on my past experiences. Typically Amazon puts up the book anywhere from three days before release day right up TO release day so it could show up literally at any moment provided the book has been made available to them by my publisher. I’ll definitely be posting the buy links as SOON as I find them. Promise!

As for Barnes and Noble? They are horrible about putting up new ebook releases. I’ve never really been able to figure this one out because they typically have books from my other publishers available for pre order on the Nook well before release day. But I’ve found that they often don’t put up Samhain releases until days AFTER the official release day. Yes, that means that if you own a Nook and want to buy the book from Barnes and Noble, you might very well have to wait up to a week after everyone else buys it in order to get it. I can only encourage you to email Barnes and Noble and tell them you want the book on release day or you’ll take your business elsewhere. I don’t know what else to do since I have absolutely no control over when they book goes up.

With all that said, ideally I know you like to purchase books at the place you’re most comfortable purchasing them at, but if you’re like me and are IMPATIENT and want the book on release day, then you’re willing to buy it wherever it’s available. If it turns out that on Tuesday, Feb 1 that you can’t find Colters’ Daughter, you can always go to the Samhain Store and buy the book in whatever format you like. They have formats for Nook, Kindle, Sony, Kobo etc. You name it they have a format you can read on your reader. Promise! And they already have it up for pre order at 30 percent off the cover price.

So with all that said, there are only four more days to release day :))) I hope you enjoy the book, wherever you manage to purchase it from.

Love,

Maya

Blog challenge part 1!

So I went book shopping last night after perusing the recommendations on the blog. I still haven’t gone through all of them but got a good start and downloaded lots of books to my Kindle. Here is what I decided to buy!

Mouth to Mouth by Erin McCarthy
Witness by Beverly Barton
Christmas with her Boss by Marion Lennox
A Table for Three by Lainey Reese
Their One and Only by Trista Ann Michaels
Falke’s Peak by Anna Leigh Keaton and Madison Layle
Male Me by Amarinda Jones
Maggie’s Mates by Bronwyn Green
Three to Ride by Sophie Oak
Two to Love by Sophie Oak
Razor’s Edge by Jayne Rylon
Night is Darkest by Jayne Rylon
Eternal Flame by Cynthia Eden
Deadly Fear by Cynthia Eden
Entwined by Elisabeth Naughton
Marked by Elisabeth Naughton
Turn it Up (ARC) by Vivien Arend

I’ve already read several and was very pleased by the results. I branched out, closed my eyes and went beyond my comfort zone on some of the choice and decided to read them anyway despite my prejudices lol. Jayne Rylon and Vivien Arend might give me hives before it’s over, but I’m determined to give the particular choices a shot *g*

Ironically, I do not read a lot of erotic romance at all. I’m super picky when I do read the genre, but I did choose several contemporary and even paranormal erotic books. I don’t read just a whole lot of paranormal books erotic or not erotic. Christine Feehan has always been my exception to that rule heee. But as I said, I’ve taken the plunge and bought books that I probably wouldn’t have ordinarily purchased and I’m really looking forward to challenging myself.

I’ll be doing more blog posts very soon as I let you know how I liked the books I’ve bought. I’ve already read about six on the list. (I was up all night reading!)

So what do you guys think of the choices so far? I’m hoping to scan through more of the recommendations and do some more shopping today *g*

The great blog challenge

Okay guys. I want to shop. I’m craving a really good read. I want to branch out and pick up some new books, new authors, rather than fall back on my stash of comfort reads. I’ve asked around for recommendations and have gotten a few but I’ve decided to make it a challenge.

Here’s the deal. Recommend something for me. I’ll put a few limitations. I’m not really looking for historicals because they don’t usually lend themselves well to a shorter format and well there just aren’t a lot of shorts out there in that genre.

I want something awesome. I would LOVE to find a new auto buy author. I would love to find a new book to covet and pet and reread a million times.

I’m looking for ebooks. Would love to find a small press author to love on. But I’ll take anything I can get in Kindle format.

I’m soooo desperate that if you end up recommending a book to me that I love, I’ll give away gift certificates. I’ll report back on the books I choose to buy out of the recommendations and I’ll report back on the books I love. And if I love the book that YOU recommend, I’ll send you a GC :)

Deal?

Now obviously it doesn’t count if I’ve already read the book or already own it. Obviously it won’t work for you to recommend a Christine Feehan book to me because duh… I already love all her books *g*

Ready? Set….Go! Oh and if you’re an author, there is no shame in recommending your own book ;)

Oh and does this need to be said? ROMANCE heh. I only want romance recs.

Edited to add: If you don’t mind, give me a little bit about the book. Maybe what you liked or a piece of the blurb or something that’s awesome about the book. That’s much better than just author and book. That way I’ll know something about it before I go searching!

On rejection

I admit I rarely ever offer advice to other writers. Not because I have no wish to help or provide “inspiration” or whatever, but the simple fact is I don’t think I have much to offer. I’m still figuring out this crazy business years after I began. I really don’t know much more now than I did when I started. And I’m always leery of dishing out the wrong advice. What works for me isn’t going to work for someone else and what doesn’t work for me might well do the trick for another writer. Honestly, writing and publishing is about finding your own way in a spiraling path of craziness.

At any rate, I’ve received several emails lately about rejection and how to cope. Since I don’t want to ignore the writers who emailed me to ask for advice, I’ll try to sum up my feelings on rejection in this blog post.

Expect rejection. If you go into this business with your eyes wide open and expect rejection, then you won’t be surprised nor will you allow yourself to be derailed when it happens. And it will. Not only will it happen once, but it’ll happen again and again. A published author is simply an author who persisted.

You can’t take rejection personally. I know that might sound hard, but writing is a business. It’s not an artistic endeavor. You’re creating a story that you hope will sell to a publisher in exchange for a paycheck. If you go into publishing with the idea that you’re creating a masterpiece that simply must be appreciated by others you are destined for frustration. You’ll make yourself crazy because many, many people will be thoroughly unimpressed by your creation. Your hope is that SOME people are impressed enough that they’ll pay money for it and enable you to continue writing more stories.

Persistence is about putting aside what hasn’t worked and the willingness to begin again with something else. It’s about being able to put aside your personal and emotional attachment to a work and being able to hammer away at it and mold it into something else more workable. It’s NOT about holding doggedly to the opinion that your work is perfect as is and that anyone who says otherwise doesn’t A. understand you or B. appreciate art.

Rejection will follow you even after you’ve nailed down that first or second or third acceptance. No one is ever going to love every single project you dream up. Publishers are looking for what they think will sell. A mistake that authors make is thinking that after they sell that first time that rejection isn’t something they have to contend with anymore.

Your mettle as an author is proven by how you react to rejection. Do you quit and flounce off in a huff? Or do you knuckle down, go back to the drawing board and propose another project, write that next book, be willing to fix what is wrong with your current work?

Rejection isn’t personal. Say it with me.

It’s part and parcel of BUSINESS.

This is business. Say it with me.

So yeah, you’ll get rejected. No one is saying rejection doesn’t suck. The important question isn’t to ask what if you get rejected. The more important question to ask is what you do when it happens.

2010

How time flies. It hardly seems possible that what seems like such short time ago we were all ringing in a new millennium. And now we’re already a decade, a DECADE into it. It makes my head hurt!

But this has been an awesome decade for me. So many things changed in my life and career. It was in 2002 that a friend of mine and I decided to take up the pen (or keyboard) and write with the goal of becoming published.

Now at the beginning of a writing career, everything is new and shiny and you have big dreams. The thing with those big dreams is that you aren’t really certain, or even halfway convinced, they’ll ever come true, but it doesn’t stop you from daydreaming about “one day.”

So much of my writing career didn’t go as I planned. Okay, none of it did. I look back on how things have gone and I just shake my head and have to laugh because nothing went the way it was supposed to.

And that’s a good thing.

You see, if things had gone the way I planned? Well, I probably wouldn’t even have a career at this point.

I never planned to publish predominately under Maya Banks. It was a pen name I made up on the fly when I sold a book to an epublisher. Even after I sold a few contemporary erotic romances, I still figured I’d publish historicals under my real name. Then I sold a contemporary romantic suspense series and then I sold contemporary romances to Silhouette Desire. All under the name Maya Banks. And well, the final laugh was when I did eventually sell some historicals, and they too sold under my pen name.

Yes, this decade has been exciting. It’s been a wonderful ride. But 2010, especially, was a year when I achieved those impossible dreams. The ones new writers like to tantalize themselves with. At least I did.

Earlier in the year, I hit the USA Today bestseller list with a book I wrote for Silhouette Desire. Then in September, The Darkest Hour also hit the USA Today bestseller list and for me this was so incredibly sweet, because this book was one I had waited years to be able to publish. It was a book I started on way back when I was still only writing historicals. But Ethan and Rachel’s story came to me and it wouldn’t leave. It stuck with me through all those years until the time was right and I pulled it back out. And the Kelly series was born.

To close out the year, the second book in the KGI series, No Place to Run, landed on the NYT bestseller list and remained on for a second week.

It took a bit for it to truly, truly sink in that so many of my goals had been reached. I’d actually done it. My books landed on the USA Today and NYT bestseller lists.

Four years after publishing that first book, I achieved something that I wasn’t sure I’d ever achieve. It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around it, but I’m more grateful than you can imagine for the opportunity to do something I love so very much.

And I’m grateful to you, the reader, for making it all possible.

My best wishes to you for a happy and safe 2011 as we embark on a brand new decade. May this year and this decade be as sweet and rewarding for you as the past year and decade has been for me.

Love,

Maya

Snow and more snow :)

I’m currently sitting in front of the fire watching the snow come down outside my window in Beaver Creek, Colorado. It’s gorgeous here. It’s snowed ever since we got here Friday. The kids are out skiing with their dad and I’m about to do some writing before I wade out in the snow to meet them for lunch.

Aren’t my snow babies cute?

A big thank you to all my readers & my glamorous life…

Yesterday was such an exciting day. No Place to Run placed #18 on the New York Times mass market fiction bestseller list. And you guys totally put it there! Thank you so much for pre-ordering it and going out and buying it in release week. *squeeze*

It’s a little surreal. I mean every author hopes to hit the USA Today and the NYT bestseller lists. But if feels like a pipe dream when you’re first starting out. It’s a little weird to think that I’ve hit both lists with my KGI books. Books that are so special to me. A series that is so special to me. To get to do what I love as my job is spectacular enough but to achieve any level of success doing what I love is just priceless. I can’t thank my readers enough for that opportunity. I’m grateful for you every single day.

Just so I never, you know, get too full of myself *snort* As some of you know, my husband is a forester. He buys timber for a paper company. Which means he deals a lot with loggers, good ole boys. (Our kind of people! lol) Anyway we have this friend who owns a logging company and a saw mill. He kept nagging my husband to make me get Word Feud on my cell phone because he thought it would be cool to play against an author.

So I’ve been playing Word Feud for the last few weeks with him. So last night when I saw it was my turn (these games go on for days) as a teasing way of telling him my news, I sent him a chat message through the game saying “You’re now playing Word Feud with a NYT bestselling author heh”

To which he responds: “Yeah, well, you’re playing Word Feud with a drunk redneck”

Well there you have it folks. My life. Glamorous huh?