What are the perks to being an Indie Author?

It is true that the word “independent” can conjure up a few things in one’s head. Independent can mean take-charge kinda free spirits that choose to travel their own path. Independent can mean someone or something that stands alone. Independent can also mean one that balks the usual and takes charge of how things are done.

All these aspects relate to an Indie author or publisher, but I think the most important aspect of why someone chooses to follow the route of Indie is the perks it offers.

Writers create works that they labor over; in fact most authors would say their manuscripts are like their children. Like children, we authors are connected to our work and know that we know what’s best for it. Becoming an Independent self-published author means you have the opportunity to raise your work yourself.

But we also know that our ‘children’ will need guidance and instruction that we might not be qualified for, that’s where editors, readers, and proofreaders come in. Like sending our ‘children’ to school, we send our works to those that know best how to create a well-adjusted storyline. We then look at the work proudly as our books perform their best attributes for our readers.

The perk of being Indie means that you get to decide what stays, what goes, which characters get a chance to speak, and how a storyline works out. This isn’t always possible following the traditional publishing route.

Another perk is the ability to meet so many amazing other individuals in a book infused world. As an Indie author your job also entails sales, marketing, public relations, and all-around getting the word out. The individuals I have met who are authors, book bloggers, or just believers in my work have been fantastic and I might not have met them without being Indie.

But I think the biggest perk is when you hold your book in your hand taken out of the box. You look down at your cover art, your name on the front, and open to the pages feeling a thrill that is unmeasured.  The hard work you have to put into all aspects of being an Indie author means that your hard work gives you a book you can be proud of and a piece of immortality in this vast world of publishing. Where that book goes and where it can take you is not just a perk, but a privilege.

Lorena Bathey

Indie Writer and Publisher

www.LorenaBBooks.com

Growing up in the Bay Area of Northern California, Lorena Bathey attended St. Mary’s College in Moragagraduating with a degree in English. Then she traveled, learned about life, and developed great fodder for a book. Losing her mother to cancer and her own marriage’s demise brought her to find herself. She wrote Happy Beginnings: How I Became My Own Fairy Godmother (www.amazon.com) and found speaking and empowering others was her passion.

Lorena Bathey found after writing her first book that characters were visiting her mind and wouldn’t leave. She was introduced to Marissa, Andrea, Lily, Deidre and Beatrice and her first novel, Beatrice Munson, came to life. After finishing that book she was inspired to write more novels and she knew that pursuing her passion was the best way to live her life. So a writer she became.

After meeting the love of her life, they embarked on the thrilling life to follow their dreams bringing their families along for the ride. Today Lorena has nine novels in her writing queue all with screenplays in the works.

But writing isn’t the only muse that inspires Lorena. She has become a passionate photographer and likes to push the envelope taking shots while learning how to navigate Photoshop. Travel, walking, enjoying new restaurants, and Italy are other loves and things she makes sure she has time for.

Find her at Lorena@LorenaBBooks.com or at www.LorenaBBooks.com

www.facebook.com/lmbathey and at www.twitter.com/lorenabbooks

Books-n-Kisses is pleased to let Stephanie Julian take over the blog today to chat about her love of writing menages. So I will set aside and let Steph tell you herself.

Take it away Steph…..

Thanks Kelly,

I love to write ménage. If one hero is good, two have to be better, right?

Well, yes, actually. But…

With three main characters, the story actually has four angles to consider.

There’s the heroine and hero one; heroine and hero two; the relationship between the three of them; and then there’s the relationship between the two men, which is important even if you’re not writing a male/male/female romance.

It’s a delicate dance and it’s always fraught with complications.

In the case of Amity, Etruscan Goddess of Health, it’s one she no longer expects to encounter. Sure, she was one of the original party girls. Along with her twin sister, Kari, Goddess of Healing, she burned the candle at both ends during their heyday in the BCs.

And why not, when the men were plentiful and she and Kari were rightly worshipped for their beauty and powers?

But over the centuries, she’s lost more of her powers as she’s lost most of her worshippers. Today, she uses what little strength she has left to help cancer and accident survivors heal.

When she meets Remy and Rom at a bar and takes them home for a little R&R, she never expects to find two men who make her feel almost like she did in her heyday.

Remy and Rom aren’t really looking for a woman. They’re looking for vengeance on the demon that killed their families. But they both have very different views of what they want out of life.

Amity has to fulfill both of their desires. But first she has to figure out what that is—which could be difficult because even the men don’t really know what they want. Except for one thing.

They both want her.

TOGETHER. THEY CREATE THE MOST POWERFUL MAGIC OF ALL …

Romulus and Remus are sexy werewolf cousins with an unbreakable bond. When they meet beautiful goddess Amity and save her from an encroaching demon, they discover that the three of them together are way more powerful than any of them could ever have imagined. And they’re going to need that power to overcome the forces that are determined to steal Amity’s magic and destroy the two men. As different as night and day, and each an amazing man in his own right, Rom and Remy make all of Amity’s deepest fantasies come true

Excerpt:

Rom knew that look. When Remy got an idea in mind, he was like a dog with a bone, no pun intended.

“Amity, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Amity smiled at Remy, lifting one hand to cup his jaw, and lust moved through Rom like a tidal wave of heat, threatening to take him under.

He wanted her, craved her on a level he hadn’t thought possible. But the way she returned Remy’s intense gaze made it clear she desired his cousin.

Fucking hell.

Remy had never looked at a woman the way he was looking at Amity. With desire instead of animal lust. Remy viewed sex as a necessary part of life, like eating and sleeping. He needed it to sustain him, but sex wasn’t for pleasure. It was for release.

Remy didn’t just want to fuck Amity. He felt an emotional connection with her.

Of course the first woman Remy would fall for would have to be a goddess.

“Thank you, Remy. I feel the same about you and Rom.”

Hell, hearing his name come from those beautiful lips just made him want her all the more. His skin felt too tight, and his hands curled into fists. He wanted to walk into the house, grab her, and throw her back down on the bed and fuck her senseless.

No way would he ever do that to a goddess but, gods damn, he so wanted to.

“I have a favor to ask of you, Remy. One I’m not quite sure how to broach.”

“Anything. You can ask anything of us.”

Shit. Shit. He and Remy might not have been raised in the den, but their parents had made sure they knew the ways of their people.

You didn’t refuse an Etruscan goddess anything.

But when a goddess wanted something from you, it probably wasn’t anything good.

Still, she’d saved both of their lives, and they owed her.

“Would you be willing to make love to me again? This time with your cousin.”

Books-n-Kisses is please to let Nico Rosso take over the blog today.
Take it away Nico…..

We’ve seen it thousands of times in Western books, films, and television shows. The hero in the white hat thunders across the dusty prairie to save the damsel in distress. Born from American history, the cowboy and his lady have become lore. Gunfighters, sheriffs, homesteader women and saloon girls are legendary now.

I’ve always had an affinity for Westerns, a love that was passed down by my dad. Films like Shane and Hondo and the books that inspired them were always around his house. When my wife, Zoë Archer, was working on her first Ether Chronicle book, SKIES OF FIRE, and we were building the steampunk world and technology, it got me to thinking about what this fantastic genre could do to the classic Western story.

For me, it was a perfect match, and I’m really excited to be writing the Western side of the Ether Chronicles. Imagine the classic story of the evil mining company trying to buy the land away from the honest homesteaders. They try to fight back, but the company is just too strong. Until a lone gunman shows up to help the homesteaders. Of course there’s a woman who captures the heart of the gunman, too.

Now imagine this story pumped full of ether. That’s what I did for NIGHT OF FIRE, taking each aspect of these classic tales and finding the steampunk spin in it. Instead of a evil mining company trying to buy land, it’s now an evil mining company’s fifty foot rolling mining machine that’s threatening to eat through the very town of Thornville, California.

The hero, Tom Knox, doesn’t come riding in on his horse, he comes flying in on his ether borne mechanical Sky Charger. And the heroine isn’t just there to be saved. No, Rosa Campos has a gun in her hand and the sheriff’s tin star on her chest. She might be more dangerous than the giant mining machine when she sees Tom. They’d been lovers until he disappeared without a word three years ago.

Steampunk injected a very new life in these classic Western characters and scenarios and gave me a great opportunity for creating inventions and technology. So my question to you is: what part of the Western do you hold close to your heart and what other genre (steampunk, paranormal, etc.) would you like to see blended with it?

Thanks, and good luck.One lucky commenter will win a free copy of NIGHT OF FIRE.

Night of Fire

The Ether Chronicles #2

Amazon | B&N

“Night of fire, night of passion”

US Army Upland Ranger Tom Knox always knew going home wouldn’t be easy. Three years ago, he skipped town, leaving behind the only woman who ever mattered; now that he’s seen the front lines of war, he’s ready to do what he must to win her back.

Rosa Campos is long past wasting tears on Tom Knox, and now that she’s sheriff of Thornville, she has more than enough to do. Especially when a five-story rock-eating mining machine barrels toward the town she’s sworn to protect.

Tom’s the last person Rosa expects to see riding to her aid on his ether-borne mechanical horse. She may not be ready to forgive, but Rosa can’t deny that having him at her side brings back blissful memories even as it reignites a flame more dangerous than the enemy threatening to destroy them both

 I can be found here: http://nicorosso.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nico_Rosso

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nico-Rosso/113422452057013

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