Category: Books

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?

Oh lots of stuff to talk about

No Place to Run released this week. A huge thank you to those of you who’ve already bought and read it. You guys are so fast! And I hope those of you who are buying later will enjoy it!

There are lots of updates to the website this week as well. FInally an excerpt to Colters’ Daughter yay! AND I’m SO excited because not only do I finally have blurbs for my Scottish historicals that release next fall, but I also got new titles as well! I didn’t like the old ones and the reaction to them was pretty tepid. But I’m so very happy with the blurbs and the titles now. The blurbs are just gorgeous. Gorgeous! I’m so afraid now the books won’t live up to the wonderful back cover copy hehe.

But the new titles are In Bed with the Highlander, Seduction of a Highland Lass and Never Love a Highlander. You can check out the blurbs on my coming soon page! And please do let me know what you think :)

Hubby and I went couch shopping tonight. Now the thing is, we just moved into this house a year ago. In fact this very time LAST year we were furniture shopping and I picked out TWO couches for our living room. So why were we shopping for another couch?

Because my children are wallowers.

Seriously. The problem is the couch that my husband and I sit on in the evening… Well it’s a large deep couch. I sit on one end and I work. He sits on the other. I sorta stretch out and put my feet on him. Sometimes he’ll lay toward me. Sounds perfect right?

Well, back to the wallowing.

My children refuse to sit on the OTHER couch. It’s going completely to waste. No, they have to sit with mama and daddy. Or ON us I should say. My two youngest pile on the couch and then wallow all over us as they snuggle and wallow and make their place ON us lol. Cute huh?

So I told my husband we simply have to get a bigger couch to replace BOTH couches so that everyone can sit (and wallow) together because right now it’s just not comfortable because while the couch is PERFECT for me and hubby, it is NOT perfect for 4-5 people.

So we went couch shopping and I brought the kids and made everyone sit and wallow on it to make sure we’d all have room and be comfortable. I think the saleslady thought we were insane, but hey, she got a sale out of it!

I’ll have to post a pic of the dogpile when we get the new couch…

It’s been awhile!

It’s been so long since I last blogged that I couldn’t remember my login info. Yeah, that bad…

I’ve been incredibly busy this fall. I don’t think I’ve stopped since August. I’ve churned out one book after another and the result has been edits on all books coming at me all at once along with MORE books that I’m trying to get done in short order.

But enough about that. It’s why you haven’t seen much of me, though I tend to check in on my Facebook page more often.

Had a super weekend. Cooked yummy food, put up our Christmas tree, hung out with the kids and snuggled on the couch in front of a fire. Tonight I’m working on copy edits for Sweet Possession. I’m almost done, done, done! I also just finished up Colters’ Daughter and Hidden Away. Like I said, I’ve been busy!

No Place to Run releases in just a week! Amazing how fast the time has gone by. I swear it was just yesterday that The Darkest Hour released. I LOVE this series. I’m already day dreaming about KGI #4. I have a tentative title but can’t share it until I get final approval from my editor. I LOVE it though. It fits the story so very well. I’ll also let everyone know WHO is in KGI #4 as soon as possible :) I want to make sure I have it all cemented before I let my readers know. Let’s just say I doubt it’s who you think it’ll be ;)

Fun contest!

I’m going to be posting this a few different places and I think it’s going to be SO much fun. Plus it will allow me to “meet” so many of my wonderful, wonderful readers (I can’t wait!)

Here are the details. Take a picture of you holding a copy of The Darkest Hour. It can be at home, at the bookstore, in the car, in a tree or in a recliner hehe. And hey, if you aren’t a print reader, just load it up on your Kindle, Nook, Kobo or reader of choice and take a picture of you holding it where it’s obvious that the book is The Darkest Hour.

Once you have your picture, post it on your blog, on my facebook fan page, twitter, your website if you have one or any public forum. Then email me the link to maya@mayabanks.com so I’ll know of your “entry” If you don’t have a place to post it, simply email me your picture, but be sure to let me know if you mind ME posting it publicly. If you don’t prefer that, I completely understand and you’ll still be entered! These pics would make an AWESOME addition to my website under fun photos :))

Sound easy enough? Here’s what you can win.

Winner will have a choice of the following.

Kindle ebook reader

Of course not everyone wants a Kindle and some of you already own one, so I have some other prizes to throw out there :)

100.00 gift certificate to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders

PLUS, in addition to one of the above, the winner will receive signed copies of ALL my 2011 releases. A year’s worth of new releases sent directly to you :)

For EVERYONE who sends me or posts a picture? I’ll give you a choice of one of my backlist ebook titles. Any one you’d like. Now I understand not everyone has an ebook reader but you can easily read it on your computer if you get the PDF or HTML version. So you can at least give it a try!

Sound fun? I love, love, love the idea of getting to put a face to so many names that have been SO good to me, so I really hope many of you will participate :)

Contest will start now, for anyone receiving early copies and will run until September 21. At that time, I’ll draw the winner.

Friday confession

Okay so I have a confession to make. And I feel pretty silly saying it’s a confession, like it’s some tawdry secret I should be whispering or something, but I feel like I’m breaking some kind of unwritten author’s code by saying what I’m about to say.

I love my books.

Okay. There. I said it!

It’s really interesting because I never see authors expressing pride in their work. I’m not saying they don’t. I’m just saying I don’t see it. In fact I see the opposite. I see a lot of “this is a piece of crap.” Or “I NEVER read my book ever ever ever again after final galleys.” or “I never want to see this again. EVER EVER EVER”

I’m not ragging on these authors whatsoever. This is a stressful enough business without me giving people grief or telling them how they should or shouldn’t act (okay so that’s a whole other topic I’ll never get into ;) I’m merely saying that the mindset seems to be it’s not okay to love your book. Or at least ADMIT to liking your own book publicly. (I imagine that’s more the case than really not loving your book)

But I’ll say it again. I love my stories. It wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t! If I didn’t love what I wrote, I wouldn’t sell them so that other people could read them. I simply couldn’t write a story that I didn’t love and have an emotional investment in.

Here’s another deep dark secret for you. I reread my books from time to time. To me, there’s nothing quite like reading a finished book. It feels completely different than reading a word file a million times and then reading a PDF galley. I like holding it in my hands and revisiting characters that I put my heart and soul into. I mean hell, I lived with them while writing them. It’s not like I can just turn off my emotions for them.

Yesterday I was in a bit of a funk so I picked up my first Desire trilogy and read all three books. Know what? I love those stories! :) Book two, The Tycoon’s Rebel Bride, is still my favorite, but I love all three.

There you have it. My deep, dark, shameful secret. *snort*

Visiting old characters

So here is my question for readers. How do you feel about scenes revisiting characters from previous books in a series? Particularly if their story may not be completely finished. Or do you resent any time spent away from the main characters of the current book?

The Sweet Series, for me, has been a continuing story of a group of friends. All of them, even though each story features a new hero and heroine. In these books while each set of characters achieve their happily ever after, things are not always perfect. That’s not the point of this series. It’s about two people who love each other and are committed to working out their issues and problems because they want to stay together and have a life together. The series isn’t about perfect people who once they make their declaration of love, they have perfect lives forevermore and ride off into the sunset.

Faith and Gray, who kicked off the series, have been featured in each of the subsequent books and they still have obstacles to overcome, but they love each other and so they work it out. Damon and Serena had a tumultous relationship and their happily ever after wasn’t quite complete at the end of their book although they loved each other and were very committed to doing whatever it took to make their relationship work.

With each book, the relationships progress and I’ve had a lot of fun showing that progression. But how do readers feel about it?

I’ve been thinking about this because I’m currently working on Sweet Possession, and last night I wrote an emotional scene between Micah and Angelina, the hero and heroine from Sweet Temptation. For those of you who’ve read Sweet Temptation, you know that these two had a very volatile, passionate relationship and that it got off to a rocky start.

So I’m wondering if you as a reader are interested in seeing scenes that further Micah and Angelina’s relationship in a book that isn’t their own. They certainly aren’t the focus of Sweet Possession, but as this is a series about a very tight knit group of friends, it only makes sense that you see them in each of the books.

Four Play ARCs

All the available ARCs have been spoken for. Thanks to everyone for such a fantastic response! I wish I could give an ARC to everyone who requested one.

This is the last week before school starts, and I’ll be frantically trying to get everything done, so I’ll be scarce for a bit. Hope to catch up with everyone when my house is quiet again!

Four Play ARC giveaway

My publicist at Berkley and I are going to give away ARCs of Four Play to bloggers and readers who are willing to read/review an erotic contemporary romance.

You can find information on the story here and if it’s something that interests you, drop me an email to mayaATmayabanks.com with the subject header FOUR PLAY ARC and please do use the subject line otherwise the email will get lost in the hundreds of others that filter in throughout the day. Please do also introduce yourself to me and let me know what your blog or messageboard of choice is :)

The only condition of this particular giveaway is that you read the book and offer commentary, review, blog about it, review it at Amazon or BN or your favorite messageboard. Liking it is entirely optional ;)

These are paper ARCs and will be mailed to the recipient. You will be asked to provide a mailing address. Unfortunately, we do have a limited number of ARCs and as much as I’d love to accommodate everyone, it just isn’t possible.

Thanks,

Maya

All about ebooks, print, format and availability

[UPDATE: Some of the information in this 2010 blog post is no longer accurate. The most up-to-date info about my ebooks is now posted here.]


Today I’m going to try to explain an issue that seems most frustrating and confusing to the most readers. Perhaps my most asked question revolves around why are some of my print books not available as soon as the ebook. Or why wasn’t the ebook available on the same day as the print release.

I write for multiple publishers. To date, I have books contracted with Samhain Publishing, Silhouette, Penguin Group and Random House.

Now, for books published with the latter three, it’s pretty easy and straightforward. My books are always released in print on the release day. They are almost always released as an ebook on the same day as well. Note I said almost. There have been a few instances where the ebook release has been delayed but this is not the norm. You can pretty much count on my books with these publishers being available on release day in whatever format you so choose. This includes any of my erotic contemporaries for HEAT, my KGI series, any of my Silhouette Desires and my upcoming Scottish Historicals.

For books released with Samhain, it’s a little more confusing, and this tends to be where I get the most questions and irritation from readers. I’ve published a number of stories with Samhain. Most are shorter than my books for other publishers. They range anywhere from a short story at just over 15k words up to 80k words and all lengths in between.

When a book releases with Samhain, it always releases in ebook first. Samhain is primarily a digital publisher so it makes sense they’d release it as an ebook. They also have a print program, and so, typically a year after the release of the ebook, they publish the story in trade paperback.

It can get even more confusing, because a story has to meet a certain word count criteria before it will be released in paperback. If it’s too short, it either won’t be printed in paperback at all OR it will have to be paired with another shorter story. Such as was the case with Stay With Me and Songbird. Those two stories were published together in print as the anthology “Linger”. It was two years before Stay With Me made the move from being ebook only to an in print title.

Since I typically only have one release from Samhain a year now, the majority of all my published books are available in print definitely. On release day. Always. And usually as an ebook as well, but we’re at the mercy of places like BN who usually don’t get around to putting up a new ebook for a few days.

So a book not being available in both print and ebook on release day is the exception, NOT the norm for my titles. I will always post this information on my website. If I have different release dates for the individual formats, I will most certainly make it clear on books page. I try to always put links to print and ebook purchase sites so readers have a variety.

So for this year? My ONE exception is Colters’ Lady. It released in June in ebook. It won’t release until June 2011 in print. All my other books? Absolutely normal.

Next year it’s likely I’ll only have one exception again in Colters’ Daughter. If it releases in 2011 in ebook, it won’t release until 2012 in print.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings or confusion. If not, pop in with a question and I’ll do my best to clear it all up for you.

Edited to add: Stacey had a really good question about not being able to find some of my Samhain titles in places like the SONY store. She has a SONY reader so of course she’d like to buy the format for her reader. The problem with third party vendors is we never know when or if they’ll put our titles up for sale. It’s random and frustrating. However, for ANY of my Samhain ebook titles, you can always buy the book in ANY format at www.mybookstoreandmore.com. Even for Sony. They sell the same formatted file that they SEND to Sony and the other vendors directly from that site. So if all else fails, go buy it and download it from MBaM :)