Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

by Danielle Jackson Ok, ok, worst blog title EVER, but I wanted to let everyone know about a fun new contest Dominique, Linda and I came up with after a discussion at RWA. Some might think we’re crazy for voluntarily offering up characters to a fan fiction contest , but fan fiction is quickly becoming a growing “industry” of its own in publishing. I think the best example we have of it happens to be one of Sourcebooks claim to fame—Jane Austen Sequels. As the #1 Austen Sequel Publisher in the country, fan fiction, in almost every form, has become a great new genre that Sourcebooks is proud to excel in! Below you’ll find the guidelines and contest information—tell all your friends! Even if they don’t submit, I think this is a very commendable new way to promote a book (just LOOK at what the grand prize winner gets!), and you know I’ll let you all know how it goes! Until Next Time, Danielle Give us your best HEX ! A Fan Fiction Contest with Linda ...

by Danielle Jackson One of the hardest things I do as a publicist is try to think of new ways to promote your books. For romance, the web is by far the biggest way to make a significant impact on readers, and of course there’s always the old stand by—print reviews. However, as more and more romance novels (and really, books in general) are released every year, sometimes, you have to do something a little weird to get people to take notice of what you’re doing. One of the best workshops I went to at RWA was called Self-Promotion: It Isn’t Rocket Science given by author Kelley St. John and her agent, Caren Johnson. They addressed this very same issue—what can you do to make your promotional efforts really pop? Kelley herself has worked out giving away vacations (in exchange with the resorts/hotels/restaurants/etc. their names are added to ALL promotional materials, they are linked to on her site, etc.) as a contest on her website. This worked to her advantage on many levels, but two ma...