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OCCRWA’s November Online Class: The Amazon Bookseller’s Toolbox, with Erica Barton

October 27, 2014 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Amazon Marketing, Erica Barton, OCCRWA Online Class

OCCRWA’s November Online Class starts November 10th and features full-time writer and blogger, Erica Barton. Here’s Erica on her upcoming class:

Do you have a book on Amazon with sluggish sales? Or is your book about to be published on Amazon and you want to promote it? Are you a traditionally published author wondering what you could do to spike your rankings, or a self-published author who is really hoping to see your book hit one of Amazonâ€™s lists?
Well, guess what! Itâ€™s easier than you think. Amazon has created dozens of tools to help any author at any stage of their career promote their books.
In this workshop, you are going to find out:

What tools Amazon has to sell books on auto-pilot.
How to change your Book Pages on Amazon, even if you arenâ€™t the publisher.
How to see who is coming to your Book Page and where they are coming from.
What to put IN your book so you can make even more sales.
Amazonâ€™s cross-promotional tools.
A marketing plan from BEFORE your book is published to long after youâ€™ve forgotten how the story goes.

And much more–here’s one example of additional content:

3 Easy Ways to Deal with Negative Reviews on Amazon

Every author gets them, no matter how good the author is. For example, â€œBeautiful Creaturesâ€ (a book that was made into a movie) has 90 1-star reviews from the Haters, but thatâ€™s only 90 bad reviews out of 3,551 reviews total. And while it may seem like a negative thing, it can actually be good for two reasons.

1)      Haters often raise the ire of the Lovers who will come to your bookâ€™s defense for you. And,

2)      They give an honest perspective to the book which lets potential readers know that there are real people reading the book versus an author bribing people to go in and leave good reviews.

The facts are these. You will probably get bad reviews when you run a KDP promotion because people who donâ€™t read your genre are going to pick up your book for free. Not only that, but there are authors without scruples who will go in and try to tank your book sales by leaving a bad review so that authors will go check out their book instead. Finally, there are the people who will just hate your book no matter what because they just donâ€™t like your voice or your plot, or whatever.

In regards to those people, I say donâ€™t let them get you down. Bad press is still press, and every review kicks up that little number of total reviews. Get enough reviews and those bad ones get washed out by the good ones.

But, letâ€™s not dwell on bad reviews. Instead, letâ€™s talk about how to deal with them.

It’s Alina again. To check out Erica’s class or sign up, visit http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassNov14.html

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My Debut at Lady Jane’s Salon OC

October 16, 2014 by Linda McLaughlin in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as Alina K. Field, Anaheim, Beth Yarnell, Debra Holland, Gypsy Den, historical romance, Lady Jane's Salon OC, Linda McLaughlin, Lyndi Lamont, romance novels, Sylvie Fox

This month I made my debut at Lady Jane’s Salon OC, reading from my historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage. I attended for the first time last month and enjoyed it so much, I agreed to read in October. I’m just glad the microphone was working Monday night.

Alina K. Field started us off with an excerpt from her latest Regency romance, Bella’s Band, which featured a visit to a brother by an innocent, gently bred young lady. Fortunately, the hero is there to rescue her from the unwanted attentions of a very drunk customer.

Debra Holland read a sweetly emotional first kiss scene from her upcoming Western romance, Glorious Montana Sky. Stealing a kiss is a daring move for an upright widowed minister.

And Sylvie Fox entertained us with a risque excerpt from her new release, Don’t Judge Me, about a young woman who designs porn websites who meets a sexy comedian who does a mean strip tease. Are you interested yet?

I went last with a dramatic scene from the first chapter of my historical romance, Rogue’s Hostage, set during the French & Indian War, and inspired by the Daniel Day Lewis movie version of The Last of the Mohicans.

Lady Jane’s Salon started in New York City where the first salon was founded in February 2009 by romance authors Hope Tarr, Leanna Renee Hieber, Maya Rodale, and book blogger, Ron Hogan. There are now eight satellite salons: Denver, CO; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Naperville, IL (Chicago area), Grenville, SC, Phoenix, AZ, Silver Spring, MD, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA and Orange County, CA. Every Lady Janeâ€™s SalonÂ® charges an admission fee of $5 OR one gently used romance novel, which is donated to a local charity..

A big thanks is owed to Beth Yarnell for founding our local salon, and also to Sylvie Fox who produces the monthly podcasts. You can listen to the podcasts at the website or by downloading them at iTunes. I’ve downloaded the past podcasts and am enjoying listening to them.

Lady Jane’s OC meets the second Monday of every month from 7-9PM at the

Gypsy Den Alt Cafe, 211 W Center Street Promenade, Anaheim, CA 92805.
Phone: (714) 956-4400

The atmosphere is eclectic and the food is delicious. I tried the bread pudding this month. Yum.

Next month’s meeting, Nov. 10, features Elizabeth Boyle, Deborah Mullins, Beth Yarnell and Felice Fox. Come join us. I can guarantee it will be a fun evening. And if you’re thinking of signing up to read, don’t be afraid. The crowd is friendly and supportive.

I’ve been busy at my blog with my Paranormal Blogfest. Check it out to read the posts and enter the Rafflecopter for a Halloween gift basket. Our own Kitty Bucholtz will be there tomorrow talking about her love for superheroes, and Susan Squires joins me on Oct. 29 for a post about her new release, Night Magic.

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont
Website: http://lindalyndi.com
Reading Room Blog: http://lindalyndi.com/reading-room-blog/

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Java ain’t just for waking up your day…by Jina Bacarr

October 11, 2014 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as cinnamon buns, coffee, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, eggs, express, java, joe, love life, morning, romance, sexy

I have a Gold Starbucks card — you get free refills — but there’s more to life than refills.

Java ain’t just for waking up your day…it can improve your love life! Here’s a short poem I wrote about kickstarting more than your day with a cup of Joe.

…………………………….

Coffee Pillow Talk

Java is a girlâ€™s best friend

When you donâ€™t want that special night to end

â€œStick around for a cup of Joe,â€ you say

After a night in bed that blew you away

Then watch his eyes glow with desire

When you put on the coffee and light his fire

Wearing a sexy black teddy, tight and see-through

You ask, â€œEggs or cinnamon buns with your brew?â€

â€œIâ€™ll have the buns,â€ he says, eyeing yours with a smile

You shiver with glee. The coffee can wait for awhile

Itâ€™s back to bed with your man for round two

And to coffee you say, a big â€œThank you!â€

Best,

Jina

www.jinabacarr.com

www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author

https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr

http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr

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OCC Birthday Bash

October 6, 2014 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives

The next OCC meeting will be the Birthday Bash, on October 18. I’ll be there. Will you?

I believe it’ll be an anniversary of sorts for me. I’m fairly sure that I joined OCC 20 years ago! That’s a long time.

It’s also close to the amount of time I’ve been published in novel-length work. I had short stories published before that, but my first novel, a time-travel romance called A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER, was published in 1995.

I’ve always felt that I owe a lot to RWA and OCC for helping me learn what I needed to get, and stay, published. Consequently, I’m delighted to be able to help celebrate OCC’s birthday.

I’m sure I’ll have a delightful time. I’ll even be signing some books there–a few of my most recent releases.

Hope to see you there!

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The Wonders of Hair Clips

September 24, 2014 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives

Well, I can’t offer you 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover or perhaps more appropriately the many (25 or more!) uses for Duct Tape (which, I was amazed to learn, actually started its life being called Duck Tape, as Johnson and Johnson used cotton canvas duck cloth to create it).

But I can share my own enthusiasm for plastic hair clips. Yep, you heard it right.

Plastic Hair Clips, various sizes

They come in different sizes and shapes, but are available at most drug stores in the “Hair Accessories” section.

First, they do hold hair. I can vouch for that. But they hold a lot of other things too, easily, conveniently and fairly cost effectively.

Like tidying up irritating strands of wires, they open in an instant, can be removed, reused or re-done, unlike a lot of other cord controlling options.

They hold things up, get and keep cords off the floor and out of the way. They can conveniently grasp things that you might like having handy, like your charger-which-keeps-sliding-off-the-table. Like holding other hair accessories nearby and accessible:

But one of my favorite uses is to keep my earphones in a tidy and (relatively) untangled ball (one that I can attach to things, perhaps an inside purse zipper pull) if I need those earphones handy. The other is holding yarn ends and beginnings so they not only don’t unravel as I carry them around or store them, but I can also find the #%@&*! end (or beginning) when I need to. They also work holding ribbon.