Category: WTF, OMG, & Misc

Pressie winners!

Yes, I’m late. It’s been that kind of week. I’ve been up late working every night but up early because my daughter has softball camp this week. I’m a slobbering mess. I need sleep!

Anyway, here are the winners of the book giveaway!!

Almost Home winner, Hope!

Breaking Point winner, Carlyn McKechnie

Chosen By Blood winner, Megerfly

Deadly Dreams winner, Alex D!

Savage Nature winner, Dannielle

Dragon Bound winner, Kathryn

Summer at Seaside Cove winner, Amber R

The Emily March trilogy winner, Alison

If you’re a winner please email me your mailing address to mayaATmayabanks.com so that your book(s) can be shipped out to you

Operation Auction!

An auction is being held to benefit Fatin Soufan who lost her husband in a senseless tragedy. Fatin is a valuable and much loved member of the romance community and so that same community has banded together to hold an auction to benefit Fatin and her four children. There are TONS of awesome donations from authors, readers, editors, agents, bloggers, you name it, we’ve got it!

You can read more about the auction and the listings by going here and you can also visit the Ebay store where auctions are going on right now! More listings will go up tonight so be sure and check back often.

Some of the items that I’m offering are:

Guest appearance in one of my upcoming books

Signed ARCs of my upcoming Highlander trilogy

A critique of a romance proposal (there will be two of these offered)

Lunch with me and Jaci Burton at RWA 2011 in NYC

Signed copies of the first three KGI books (this auction goes live at midnight tonight)

Signed copies of my Tycoon trilogy that’s out of print (this auction goes live at midnight tonight)

Signed copies of the first 5 books in the Sweet series (To include Sweet Possession to be released in a week!)

AND to sweeten the pot a little? I’m offering readers of my blog, Facebook, Readers yahoo group and my twitter followers a little “sweetener” on the auction for the Sweet series books *g* If you are the winner of the auction for the Sweet books AND you mention this blog post to me I’ll include an ARC of Sweet Addiction, which releases in April 2012.

Happy bidding and you have my deepest gratitude for helping such a wonderful cause.

Love

Maya

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.

Dear Santa

My wish list may be a bit bizarre but it IS a wish list and as such I do a lot of WISHING this holiday season. Can you hook me up please?

More sleep. Or maybe I should say I need more writing done during daylight hours so I CAN sleep more at night. Would really appreciate this one.

Cold weather. Really I just want it to remain consistent. I mean if it has to be hot then let’s just go with hot all the way through. This 30 degrees one day and 75 the next is seriously fucking with me. My poor thermostat controls are screaming WTF at me as I go from heat to A/C

I’d really love for people to stop bitching so much, but I suppose that’s a lot to ask. Maybe just give me a roll of duct tape so I can do the job myself. I realize you’re busy and well, this one’s a tall order…

I’m worried about my upcoming trip to Colorado. You see, I figure about the time we land in Denver and depart on the two hour drive to the place we’re staying, Colorado will be gripped my a freak heat wave and that the temps will soar to unprecedented, all time highs. Which will cause a massive snow melt and the entire state will become a reservoir. Really I just want some snow while I’m there. I figure since they get a bazilion inches in the mountains every winter that this isn’t an overly difficult request, but I DO have evidence to support my paranoia. After all, we traveled to Scotland a year and a half ago and they experienced RECORD heat the ENTIRE time we were there. And dude, those people don’t have air conditioning.

And lastly, I need the book writing fairy to somehow place an entire finished manuscript (an awesome manuscript!) under my pillow by January 1.

That would be cool.

Lots of love.

Maya

PS, I think a “mute” button for my children would be most awesome. I’m sure a man of your advanced age and expertise could figure out how to sneak into their bedrooms Christmas Eve night and implant chips that control vocal cords. You can leave the remote in my stocking. I promise not to use it more than once…an hour.

Fun news (and I’m back from RAW)

The past two weeks have been a blur! Just two days after the release of The Darkest Hour, I left for Lora Leigh’s Reader Appreciation Weekend in West Virginia. Fun times were had by all but man was I tired when I got home!

My inbox looks like a bomb went off… So if you’ve emailed me, be patient, because uhm wow are there a lot of emails to wade through!

Just yesterday, I found out that The Darkest Hour hit this week’s USA Today bestseller list. I’ve been so excited by the reception this book has enjoyed and I just want to say thank you to all of you for buying, reading and recommending the KGI series. I’m so stoked for the release of No Place to Run in December!

Sometimes the wait makes things all the sweeter, and I’ve waited a long time to be able to tell Ethan and Rachel’s story. I’m just so thrilled that so many people have enjoyed their journey :)

Borders True Romance Blog and giveaways!

I’m over at the Borders True Romance Blog with the other RomCon finalists. It’s your chance to ask whatever question is burning your brain ;) I’ll answer, promise! They’re also giving away prizes and Borders Gift Cards. (Books! Who doesn’t need more books!) Come visit and say hi!

And don’t forget to scroll down here for the Lorelei James giveaway.

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 :)

All about Email

Over the next little while, I’ll occasionally (as I have time) be posting informational type blogs on issues that arise with my readers, websites, book info, reader email etc. These blogs will then be pointed to at intervals from the website for people who are looking for just such information.

Today it’s going to be all about email. I love email. Really, I do. See, I hate to talk on the phone. I’d much rather email someone then spend an absurd amount of time on the phone pussy footing around a subject and filling awkward silences with uh…uhm…yeah…well….and (you get the picture)

At any rate, I answer all my email. Really. If you’ve ever email me and haven’t gotten an answer, it’s because I never got it. There are a few minor exceptions. I mean if you email me to say I’m going to hell, I probably won’t respond with thank you, but I might send you my prayer request list. (It’s kind of long) And any email which begins “shame on you” is instantly relegated to the trash bin, because really, it can only go down hill after that.

Now I say all this only to bring up the point that while I DO answer all my email, there are simply times when I’m not able to answer it as quickly as I’d like to. Sometimes it might just be a few days. Sometimes I answer within minutes. Other times it might literally be weeks. When I’m on a tight deadline, email is the first sacrifice to the God’s. I could literally get lost in emails for an entire day and I can’t afford that kind of distraction when I have to finish a book like yesterday.

I’m working with my web designer to try and ease a lot of the questions I receive via email. I know it’s frustrating for readers not to have the answer they want, and it’s frustrating to me when I have the answer on my website but still get asked those questions. This is where I need help asking what can we do different? How can we make it clearer and absolute that the information on my website constitutes every thing I know to date about my books, blurbs, covers and release dates? And how can I make the information more accessible?

We’re working more and more on my FAQ section to try to answer as many frequently asked questions as we can. As soon as I get them, I have them posted with detailed answers.

But back to my point. I read and enjoy every single email I receive from readers. I know that readers like and want a personal response. I’d want one too. I just ask that you bear with me at times when my inbox starts overflowing to the tune of 15k emails. When I’m writing and email gets busy, I sorta just shut down and stop looking at the email all together because it stresses me to have unanswered emails. I like to give my readers what they expect.

So my promise still remains. I always read and respond to all email (within reason because if you’re screaming at me about hell and damnation, I’ll direct you to my sister who’s a pastor’s wife and have her teach you a few things about casting stones and what not) It’s just that sometimes I’ll answer more quickly than others and in those times when I haven’t responded in a bit, don’t think I’ve decided to no longer be gracious. It’s just that I’m probably losing my mind and no one really wants to see all that ;)

Lots of love!

Maya