March Madness with BookBub and Dawnflight by @KimHeadlee! (The Dawnflier, March 2016)

Silhouettes of men playing basketball
(c)2016 by NATALINKA7626,
licensed via Bigstock, ID 96505028.

I am not a basketball fan by even the faintest stretch of the imagination. But I thought this picture was cool and I hope you enjoy it too. :)

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) games are huge in my corner of Virginia, with Virginia Tech just up the road, and invariably my favorite CBS weekday evening shows—Elementary, Hawaii 50, Blue Bloods, and now Supergirl—will get preempted for games. 

Oh, well. That's what streaming is for, I guess.

Meantime, since I can't "beat 'em," I figured I'd "join 'em" in reporting my own version of "March Madness" relating to my books. And boy is there plenty of madness to go around this March!

BREAKING NEWS: Dawnflight will be featured in the Fantasy category of BookBub 3/3/2016! If you are one of the 2 million subscribers to this rigidly juried book promotion service, you will understand my happy dance. The even better news is that you don't need to have a BookBub account to follow me on BookBub and receive news about this and future deals I hope to offer!

More Breaking News: March 1–2 The Challenge is a free worldwide Kindle download—hurry; get your e-copy now!

Even More Breaking News: Enter this Amazon giveaway for a print copy of The Color of Vengeance. It's another time-sensitive deal, so don't delay; enter today! Didn't win the paperback this time? No worries; I plan to run a giveaway for one of my books every month!

Just When You Thought I Was Out of Breaking News: I have inked deals with two different voice artists to produce the audiobook editions of King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court (Danielle Cohen, a British ex-pat living in on the East Coast) and Snow in July (William Hensel, whom I met at Farpoint Convention last month). Stay tuned for progress reports!

My next appearance: Virginia Festival of the Book Fair, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Atrium of the Omni Hotel, 212 Ridge McIntire Road, Charlottesville, VA. I hope to see you there!

Sorry! If I seem so excited! But all this news! Is so! GREAT!!!

:D

***

Look for Dawnflight to be featured on BookBub soon.
Follow me on BookBub so you don't miss this and other great deals!

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Place your bets on Gambler's Choice by @LNightingale for #LeapDay #EggcerptExchange

Celebrating Leap Day on The Maze with 

Gambler's Choice by Linda Nightingale,
a novel about people who love horses…
from The Wild Rose Press.

Cover Artist:  Debbie Taylor
Editor: Mary Harmony

Synopsis
An English aristocrat and a Virginia socialite go head-to-head—and feet-to-feet—in a battle for ownership of a very special horse.

Becca McQuaid came to England to find the perfect horse but instead met a darkly mysterious challenge in Austen Heath, Baron of Hampton. She’s determined to buy Austen’s stallion Gambler’s Choice. He’s determined not to sell, but the rivals are thrown together by an accident that leaves Austen with a broken leg and the threat he’ll never ride again.

Austen Heath has the title, heritage and manor house… but not the fortune. Becca is wealthy. Her charms are irresistible, but he believes she’s shopping for a Ladyship to go with her money. He has another reason to hold the sexy blonde at arms’ length—the unexplained disappearance of an old friend everyone thinks was his lover. When her body is discovered on his property, he becomes a suspect in her murder.

Excerpt
Rebecca McQuaid was in England for one reason.

To find the perfect match.

Size was important. Becca was a tall girl. Money was of no consequence whatsoever. Becca was a wealthy girl. Heart mattered most. He must have the heart to go the distance. She dreamed of a partnership that would last a lifetime. But looks did rank quite high on her list of priorities.

“I simply can’t ride an ugly horse. That would be like dating an ugly man.” Tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder, she laughed and winked at her friend.

Meg shot her a frown, her tone accusing Becca of being an uncivilized colonist. “Rebecca McQuaid, you say the damnedest things.”

An appreciative chuckle turned her around to squint into the sun. A tall, elegant, dark figure of a man on a magnificent horse caught her imagination mid-stride. She couldn’t see the rider’s face, but she knew he’d overheard the exchange with her friend. He saluted her with a tap of his whip to the brim of his hat as he rode past. Excitement capered over her, and she smiled. The horse’s muscled, blood bay rump glistened. The stallion was sixteen-two hands, fit and impeccably groomed.

“Nice buns. That one’s good-looking enough for me.” She elbowed her friend. “Who is it?”

Meg shaded her eyes. “Gambler’s Choice and Austen Heath. Both horse and rider satisfy your criteria, my dear girl.”

“The horse is handsome.” She wished she had gotten a better look at the bay, but he was a mahogany blaze in the morning sun. “Are you telling me the rider is?”

“That’s the general consensus, but Austen hides in that rambling, dark mansion of his.” Meg studied the pair picking up a trot along the arena. “Fierce competitors. Hard to beat at Intermediate. We’ll see how they handle Advanced.”

“An Advanced horse?” Becca wriggled her shoulders. “I’m in the market.”

“Look elsewhere.” Meg’s finger jutted at Becca’s nose. “Austen won’t sell Gambler for love or money. Guaranteed. Not even for the kind of money you’re willing to spend.”

“Meggie.” She linked arms with her friend. “Everything has a price.”

Meg balked like a donkey. “You’re in a different world, princess.”

“Well, not everything. Love doesn’t have a price.” Pain wrenched her heart as a memory of the breakup with Daniel flashed through her mind. The hurt was too fresh to even think of another man. “But I’m not in the market for love.”

Becca had found that the best way to protect her heart was to play spoiled little rich girl. She had that part down pat, and, as Winston Churchill had said, There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. She was looking for a horse to fall in love with and help mend her broken heart.

Buy Gambler's Choice via Amazon Kindle

Book trailer:

Learn more about Austin of Gambler's Choice:
Nickname: Austen is difficult to shorten.  As luck would have it, no nickname from childhood stuck.  Once upon a time, I was called Pooh Bear by my mother.  Can you imagine a 3-Day Eventer called Pooh Bear?

Currently residing in... Somerset, England in my country estate though Virginia with its spirited fillies sounds quite nice

Favorite type of pet – One of my best friends is a Mastiff named Dane.  The other is Gambler’s Choice, a handsome bay stallion.,  Neither are pets, per se.

Most important goal – To be the top of my sport and a renowned horseman.

Wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between? I’m the Baron of Hampton.  I have the manor, the title but not the fortune.  I am not destitute but it costs a lot to keep up Hampton Hall, and for now my dreams of sports fame must languish in the wings.

Secret desire or fantasy – To find the woman I love, settle down, and sire the heir to the barony.

About the Author
Born in South Carolina, Linda has lived in England, Canada, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta and Houston. She’s seen a lot of this country from the windshield of a truck pulling a horse trailer, having bred, trained and showed Andalusian horses for many years.

Linda has won several writing awards, including the Georgia Romance Writers Magnolia Award. She is the mother of two wonderful sons, a retired legal assistant, member of the Houston Symphony League, and enjoys events with her car club. Among her favorite things are her snazzy black convertible and her parlor grand piano.  She loves to dress up and host formal dinner parties.

Follow Linda via:

Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest |

Web Site – Visit and look around. There’s a free continuing vampire story.

Blog – Lots of interesting guests and prizes.

***

Look for Dawnflight to be featured on BookBub soon.
Follow me on BookBub so you don't miss this and other great deals!

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Gyan lays down the law in Ch 10/Sc 3b of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay (c)2016 by Kim Headlee.

It can be a challenge for a writer to craft a realistic portrayal of a female character possessing military authority. 

I am fortunate to have spent two years learning about leadership—especially how being a leader relates to being female—at the US Air Force Academy as part of the second class to have accepted women (Class of 1981). When I chose to leave, halfway through that tour, I did so armed with knowledge that I never dreamed would be useful one day for my fiction.

A decade later, when a dream about a warrior-woman Guinevere (Gyanhumara) engaged in a swordsmanship lesson with her father inspired me to begin writing Dawnflight, the first installment of The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, I knew that Gyan would also be called upon to command troops in battle.

Leadership, however, is not solely about shouting orders in the heat of combat, as demonstrated in today's excerpt from Raging Sea.

Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings

 Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a |

Raging Sea Chapter 10, Scene 3b

©2016 by Kim Headlee

All rights reserved.

Please forgive me!

Angusel couldn’t bring himself to voice the plea.

She may have heard it anyway; when he dared to look up, her countenance had softened. It heartened him to add, with every drop of sincerity he could muster, “I vow that it shall never happen again, Comitissa.”

Her lips curved into a faint smile. It surprised him to realize just how much he’d missed seeing it, and he fixed his gaze to the red and blue dragons on the wall behind her to avoid making an even greater fool of himself for staring at her.

“I trust that you will exclude battle frenzy from that vow, Ainchis Sàl,” she answered, also switching to Ròmanaiche. “There will come a day when your unit will need that unbridled . . . passion.”

What an odd choice of words, he thought, and blinked. When he regarded her again, the smile was gone and she appeared to be looking past his shoulder. He turned.

Gawain map Loth, damp haired and swathed in clean bandages, tunic, and breeches, was standing in the open doorway, followed by his two guards. The guards rendered smart legion salutes, pivoted, and withdrew. Curbing his anger, as he’d promised, Angusel prepared to leave too.

“Optio, stay,” she ordered, and Angusel faced her. “Soldier Gawain, enter. What I must say is for the both of you to hear.”

As Gawain stepped forward into position beside Angusel, who battled the urge to sidle away, she folded her arms and leaned back against her worktable. “Optio Ainchis Sàl, your assumption was correct. Soldier Gawain did indeed disgrace himself and, by extension—”

“We’ve been over and over this, Aunt Gyan! I swear by everything holy that I don’t know what came over me!”

She raised a hand. After Gawain fell silent and pursed his lips, she lowered it.

“Gawain, what Arthur and I could not tell you until we had returned to headquarters, far away from—other ears, is that we believe you were used by Fergus and Caitleen to cause an incident that would embarrass all of us.”

“What? Why?” Gawain shook his head. “And why me?”

“Our theory is that Fergus had decided to involve whoever won the match, and he made certain that he would be the other competitor.”

Gawain’s short chuckle sounded rueful. “I thought my win came too easily there at the end.” His eyebrows lowered. “But that doesn’t explain why it had to be me.”

“Win?” asked Angusel. “What sort of win? Against Fergus—the Scot? The man who had held you captive, Comitissa? That Fergus? He was at Morghe’s wedding?” He shook his head at the staggering implications.

To Gawain she said, “Bad luck. Or… perhaps good luck. If you had not been family, we would have had no choice but to execute you. So be grateful for that mercy, at least.”

As Gawain gave a thoughtful nod, she said to Angusel, “Urien has forged a personal alliance with the Scots. They have been deeded land near the Moray border with Clan Argyll.”

“Gods, no!” Angusel clamped his mouth shut.

“If Gawain wants to tell you the details of his part in the story, he will.” She redirected her gaze at Gawain. “And you will tell him.”

Over Gawain’s panicked, “What!” Angusel said, “Comitissa, I don’t have to know—”

She knotted her fists and stalked to within a pace of both of them. “You two have shown nothing but animosity toward each other for months now. Ever since… Loholt. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. So has Arthur. This ends now.

“Gawain, I am assigning you to First Ala. Optio Ainchis Sàl a Dubh Loch is your commanding officer. If he orders you to spit and you don’t, I assure you that you will regret it. Understood?”

“Yes, Commander Gyan.” It was the most sullen agreement Angusel had ever heard from him. Her glare sharpened, and Gawain’s countenance humbled.

A hundred questions spun in Angusel’s mind, beginning with, “Does this mean—that is, my lady, the legion’s command structure does not place any men under the optio. Do I have to order Gawain around?” The commands he issued to Drustanus did not represent official legion business except in the very broadest sense. To contemplate commanding someone on a daily basis who had until yesterday outranked him bordered on the outright ludicrous. To say nothing of the fact that Gawain had to be several years his senior.

That half smile reappeared on her lips. “As of this moment, First Ala’s optio has an assistant, and the Pendragon has concurred. You may do with Soldier Gawain as you see fit.”

Gods.

If she could have given a response that was any less helpful, Angusel could not have fathomed how.

***

Look for Dawnflight to be featured on BookBub soon.
Follow me on BookBub so you don't miss this and other great deals!

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Meet Amanda in Worth the Risk by Lyn O'Farrell @LyndiLamont for 2016 #EggcerptExchange

Today's Eggcerpt Exchange offers a character interview of Amanda Lloyd in
Worth the Risk by Lyn O'Farrell!

But first, let's learn a little about award-winning Worth the Risk...

Synopsis
Children's librarian Amanda Lloyd values privacy above all else. Three years ago her wedding ended in disaster when her groom was arrested at the altar and the story of the 'Embezzler's Bride' appeared in the supermarket tabloids. The experience has left her determined to avoid being caught in the public eye again. Until she meets a sexy single dad with a scandalous past…

Ex-racer Mitch Delaney is a public figure whose life has been plastered across the tabloids more than once. But he believes that anything worth doing is worth a risk. After the death of his ex-wife, he moved to Southern California to take care of his son Josh. He doesn't need the complication of a woman in his life, especially since Josh's grandparents have filed suit for custody. But Josh is on the hunt for a new mother and he has his heart set on Miss Amanda, and Mitch can't fault his son's taste.

Against her better judgment, Amanda finds herself falling for both of the Delaney men. When she agrees to accompany Mitch to a high-profile movie premiere, they draw the attention of the tabloids. Overnight Amanda’s private affair becomes very public indeed, threatening her job and Mitch’s custody suit. She’s waited twenty-eight years for the right man. But will happiness come at too high a price?

(Golden Heart Finalist, previously published as Private Affair, Kensington Precious Gem #121)

Children's librarian Amanda Lloyd values privacy above all else. Three years ago her wedding ended in disaster when her groom was arrested at the altar and the story of the 'Embezzler's Bride' appeared in the supermarket tabloids. The experience has left her determined to avoid being caught in the public eye again. Until she meets a sexy single dad with a scandalous past…

Ex-racer Mitch Delaney is a public figure whose life has been plastered across the tabloids more than once. But he believes that anything worth doing is worth a risk. After the death of his ex-wife, he moved to Southern California to take care of his son Josh. He doesn't need the complication of a woman in his life, especially since Josh's grandparents have filed suit for custody. But Josh is on the hunt for a new mother and he has his heart set on Miss Amanda, and Mitch can't fault his son's taste.

Against her better judgment, Amanda finds herself falling for both of the Delaney men. When she agrees to accompany Mitch to a high-profile movie premiere, they draw the attention of the tabloids. Overnight Amanda’s private affair becomes very public indeed, threatening her job and Mitch’s custody suit. She’s waited twenty-eight years for the right man. But will happiness come at too high a price?

(Golden Heart Finalist, previously published as Private Affair, Kensington Precious Gem #121)

Eggcerpt:
The town was lovely, with tall palm trees and a sandy crescent of beach ringing the glistening bay. It was a picture perfect day as they strolled along the waterfront to one of her favorite seafood restaurants.

After a delicious lunch of fresh swordfish they walked the town, stopping at all the tourist spots. They hiked up to the botanical gardens, visited the Casino where haunting echoes of the Big Band era seemed still alive, and went on the Glass Bottom boat.

“Let’s take a walk on the beach,” Mitch suggested as they stepped onto the pier.

They shed their shoes and socks, enjoying the feel of the warm sand on their toes. Amanda breathed deeply of the sea air and sighed in contentment.

“It’s been such a nice day, I hate to go home,” Mitch observed.

“You just don’t want to get back in the plane,” she teased.

“On the contrary, I can’t wait to take off over that drop-off gorge. I hope it doesn’t leave Josh fatherless.”

“You don’t have any confidence in me.”

“I haven’t booked passage on the boat, have I? You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

He gave her a look that told her the man loved a touch of danger. Her plan had backfired. Instead of discouraging him, he seemed even more interested. That should bother her, but somehow it didn’t.

“I’ve really enjoyed this.” He gestured at the town. “It’s like another world.”

She nodded in agreement. “That’s the reason I enjoy flying over here. It’s so easy to forget about the stress of daily life.”

He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “What kind of pressure are you going back to at the library?”

The pressure is right here. She was constantly fighting her attraction to this man. “Nothing really,” she remarked casually. “We’re getting ready for Halloween and I’ve got to get a costume together. I’m supposed to be Sleeping Beauty.”

“Oh? That has possibilities.” He leaned closer so his lips brushed her temple. His throaty voice whispered in her ear, “You’ll need a prince to kiss you awake, you know. I’ll be happy to volunteer for the job.”

Amanda’s breath quickened as she stared into his darkened eyes. He wouldn’t. Not here, on a public beach, in front of everyone.

He would.

She felt her knees weaken as his mouth descended. Her mind told her to pull away but her body had no desire to back out of his embrace. His kiss was as light and tender as an ocean breeze, but her reaction was anything but cool. Her pulse pounded and her heart jumped erratically.

It’s just a kiss, she told herself. But even as they pulled apart she felt a burning desire, an aching need, to feel his arms around her.

Buy links:

Kindle | Apple | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Smashwords |

Worth The Risk is also part of the Hearts and Heroes boxed set.

Lyn O’Farrell’s Interview of Amanda Lloyd

Tell us about your job.
I’m a children’s librarian at Santa Elena Public Library and I love it!

What is your favorite type of pet?
I love dogs. My current companion is a miniature Dachshund named Willie who loves untying my guests’ shoe laces.

Name a favorite place to visit.
I love to hop over to Avalon on Santa Catalina every chance I get. It’s such a little town.

What is your worst fear or nightmare?
Being publicly shamed… again.

What is your secret desire or fantasy?
I’d love to have children some day. But first I have to find the right man to help me make that possible.

For Amanda to get her secret desire, she’s going to have to get over her fear of being in the public eye.

Author bio:
Lyn O'Farrell is the writing team of Anne Farrell and Linda McLaughlin. Their romance novel, Private Affair, was a finalist in RWA's prestigious Golden Heart contest and was first published in paperback by Kensington Precious Gems. Anne and Linda live in sunny Southern California, the inspiration for the fictional town of Santa Elena.

You can find the authors online at:
Anne Farrell’s website: http://annefarrellwriter.com/
Linda McLaughlin http://lindalyndi.com
Blog: http://lindalyndi.com/reading-room-blog/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LindaMcLaughlinAuthor
Twitter: @LyndiLamont https://twitter.com/LyndiLamont

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

The Business of Writing: Using #Giveaways to Market Your Book #ASMSG #IARTG #MFRWOrg

New York Public Library c2012 by Morenovel,
Depositphotos 19028705, editorial use only. 

In case you missed it, I described Twitter marketing tips for authors in this post. Today on The Maze I offer part 2 in my marketing series, using giveaways to help market your book.

Shortly after my first novel, Dawnflight, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1999, I was attending a meeting of the Washington Romance Writers where I heard a fellow first-time author state that she loved giving away copies of her book.

Loved? Really?? But what about the lost sales???

I have lived, and learned, and now the older and wiser me is here to instruct you.

All together, class: what is the purpose of marketing?

To increase exposure for you and your book! 

Is that the answer you came up with? Good! Now you're getting it. :)

Any sales that may result from your marketing efforts, including giveaways, are pure gravy.

There are several ways to set up book and book-related giveaways, which include:

• Amazon. The credit for this tip goes to Jackie Weger in her article on the eNovel Authors at Work blog titled "Mastering Amazon." This is for print editions of your books only, not e-books. If you have published your book via Createspace, then it qualifies for an Amazon giveaway.
  
  Update 3/4/2016: Amazon is now letting authors set up e-book giveaways, even for e-books that are not exclusive to Kindle! Changing my marketing strategies now... :D
  
  To get started, go to your book's product page and look for the "Set up an Amazon Giveaway" heading beneath the customer reviews summary or forum discussions. If you don't see that heading on the main product page, then your book doesn't qualify. If you publish and distribute all your books via LightningSource or IngramSpark, you're out of luck on this option; keep scrolling for giveaway options you can exercise.
  
  Amazon gives you several choices from which to select your call-to-action for customers to enter your giveaway, but I recommend selecting "Follow on Amazon" for three reasons:
  1. Amazon customers don't usually unfollow an author after the contest is over, as they might on Twitter and other social media platforms,
  2. you acquire more people whom Amazon will automatically notify via email about your new releases, and
  3. the Amazon follows help boost your author rank.
  
  The biggest drawback to Amazon's giveaways, however, is that you must purchase your book's copies at full retail price, not at your much lower POD printing cost, and you must pay an astronomical amount—up front—in potential shipping costs, based on the assumption that all copies will be awarded. They will refund the amount of all unawarded copies to your credit card, but the price for setting up the giveaway can give you a severe case of Sticker Shock.
  
  To view your Amazon Giveaways dashboard, sign on to your Amazon account and then follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/giveaway/host/dashboard. That is of course the US link; any visitors not living in the US who would like to try the experiment with the Amazon business unit in their home country (Amazon.co.uk, for example), please let us all know how it turned out by leaving a comment on this post; thanks!
•  Goodreads. Jenn Hanson-dePaula on Mixtus Media blog talks about lots of ways to use Goodreads to expand your audience, including Goodreads giveaways, in this article. Again, Goodreads giveaways are for physical copies of your book rather than e-books, but with Goodreads you get the advantage that the majority of entrants—if not already fans of yours—are at least avid book readers.
  
  I have netted several reviews and star rankings of my books via Goodreads giveaways. Postage costs are on you and may be mitigated by limiting entrants to your home country, but it's a tax-deductible expense, and in the US the Tax Man is warming up to start knocking on your door. :D
• LibraryThing. I have not yet availed myself of the option to set up giveaways via LibraryThing, and I need to. FMI click HERE. Basically, if you are a LibraryThing Author, or if you have >50 books logged in your LibraryThing account, or if you have a paid LibraryThing account, you are eligible to set up Member Giveaways.
  
  Another feature I need to check out on LibraryThing is the special group they've set up where member authors can find readers to review their books. That forum is called "Hobnob with Authors".
  
  More information for authors—including how to become a LibraryThing Author—may be viewed on THIS PAGE.
• Rafflecopter. The sky's the limit for prizes that can be specified via Rafflecopter, including swag and gift cards and e-books, and you can even specify multiple prize tiers wherein some winners are chosen from the international pool of entrants and some are limited to a specified country of origin. I recommend exercising this option via virtual blog tours, however, since Rafflecopter is a paid service and it can be pricey to set up giveaways on your own.
  
  Another advantage to a Rafflecopter giveaway is that you can structure it to give entrants more than one opportunity to win (subscribe to your blog or newsletter, follow you on various social media platforms, send out a specific tweet, etc.). That's the meaning of the "/number" in the top right corner of the Rafflecopter widget—the number of entry opportunities available for you to exercise in the given contest.

I also run my own monthly giveaways (see below for how to enter) from the pool of people who have followed me on various social media platforms and who have commented upon my blog posts. An option I may institute soon is performing a random drawing among people who have signed up for my newsletter during the past month. In these types of cases I have found the web site Random.org invaluable for impartially choosing a winner.

Another technique I've begun implementing recently with fantastic results is creating print editions of my short stories, each one in a separate booklet. I do these via Createspace, using their Cover Creator template that allows me to upload the e-book's cover, and each one costs me less than US$3.00 per copy, delivered. Handing these out at personal appearances has resulted in digital downloads as well as sales of my full-length print editions.

Publishing standalone short stories sidesteps the issue of potentially alienating your audience when all you're doing is publishing the first chapter or two of a much longer book.

Plus, these Createspace-generated booklets are eligible as Amazon giveaway prizes.

Make sure, however, that you're creating giveaway samples of your best writing. Because you will never get another chance with that reader to make a good first impression.

Book contests are a specialized form of giveaway that I will blog about at a later date. Suffice it to say that I have entered several lately; please keep your fingers crossed for me and my books! :)

Which giveaway types have worked best for you?

Happy writing, happy marketing, and happy giveaway-ing!

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Meet Marin in Shocking Finds by @traceylclark11 2016 #EggcerptExchange!

Author Takeover today on The Maze for the Eggcerpt Exchange: Tracey Clark, introducing her Finders Keepers novel, Shocking Finds! 

In Tracey's words:

Here are a few treats for readers interested in Paranormal/Fantasy Romance (New Adult)

A blurb, a quick excerpt, some links for buying options and author info… and

Lastly… a fun little Q&A session with the main character Marin!!

Happy wordage, everyone!

Blurb:
An act of rebellion, Marin doesn't think that running into the new store in town will hurt anything. Her aunt will never know... right? One car wreck later, her aunt is hospitalized, Marin is forced to spend her twenty-first birthday fighting for her life, and magic - the very thing her aunt has always sworn to be for fools - is real. And so is the irresistible Fae dedicated to Marin's protection.

Kyland has searched Earth-side and all the other realms, looking for a missing Fae child. A child his Queen prophesied would be able to one day save the Fae people from the Danshue, as the evil Fae threat tries to overwhelm the entire Supernatural Community. A child that would know nothing of her blocked gifts, or her Fae heritage waiting to be claimed. A child that has grown into a curvy, delicious morsel he would love to taste

Together Marin and Kyland will fight Fae assassins, overcome betrayals, and if they're lucky ... they will find the Danshue responsible for their plight. That's if Marin doesn't shock him to death with her erratic new gift, and her out of control emotions.

Buy your copy today!!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Indigo | Smashwords |


Excerpt: (from chapter two, Shocking Finds)

Marin needed answers. Like why had they been targeted? The parking lot hadn’t exactly been lacking for vehicular violence victim contenders. There had been a group of at least four women, standing by their cars, chatting. If there was a target more deserving of vehicular rage, it had definitely been that group of women. They had finished shopping, and courtesy demanded that their parking spots were to be relinquished as soon as possible. Why not them? 

The man—and Marin was only guessing that the driver was a man—had bypassed those without parking lot etiquette and zeroed in on Lindal. If she had continued her slow progress through the parking lot, would Marin be in this horrible room with its beeping monitors and bleached air instead of Lindal. 

Staring down at her aunt’s unmoving form, Marin tried to find a place to rest her hand. She needed to touch her. She needed to know that the only person willing to take her in, after the death of her mother, was really here and still alive.

“They will find him, Lindal. He won't get away with this,” Marin made her vow as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb Lindal's recovery.

Glancing up to keep tears from falling from her eyes, Marin noticed something swinging off of Lindal's oxygen line. “What the...” It looked like a Barbie doll with wings, perhaps six inches tall. The odd little creature wore a loin cloth and sported some overly obvious male attributes. Was it wrong to be checking out the abs of someone no larger than a child’s toy?

His arms tugged and his muscles bunched as he attempted to make a knot in Lindal's oxygen line. His silver skin tone went beautifully with his tri-colored wings— a mix of light purple, maroon, and gold. The little man didn't seem to realize that Marin was staring at him. 

“Stop,” Marin shouted. Dammit, this was a hospital. She needed to lower her voice. She also needed to go upstairs to the psych ward. Head trauma, shock, or hallucinations¼ something wasn' t right. If she told Lindal about this, her aunt would call her every kind of fool. 

Hallucination or not, she grabbed the little man by the wings, pulled him from Lindal’s oxygen line, and tried to speak more calmly. “What do you think you’re doing?”

She finally had her figment’s attention. A striking, though small, pair of lavender eyes glared at her through overly long sandy brown bangs. On closer inspection, she could see that his hair was actually multicolored. It seemed to go from crystal white sand to bronzed gold.

“Well, answer me. What do you think you're doing?”

“Waiting for you, of course.”

“What are you?” She was losing it. The buzzing in her temples was increasing. And she was now speaking to a figment of her imagination. Yep, she needed to be medicated. 

The creature put its tiny fists on narrow hips. “A Sprite, of course. Don't you know anything? I have my work cut out for me.” Now she was being insulted by her imagination. Great.

“Nope. Too Much,” Marin said and tossed the little man with wings out of the hospital window. She needed coffee. Either that or a large dose of Thorazine. Maybe both.

All About Tracey Clark!!
I am a country-twang gal from the bluegrass state. Kentucky is a hot bed of horses, cave systems, and whiskey. And I love all three. With my pugs and bossy kitty cat, I spend my days writing and working social media. I write with the help of the voices pushing me to create worlds for them to live in. Fantasy Romance, Contemporary Romance, and eventually some cowboys (because cowboys live in a group all their own, yummmm)… These are the genres that I love best. Oil paints, crafts, dealing with Multiple Sclerosis, and writing into the dead of night… this is my life!!!

To find out more about Tracey here are some links:

Author Page (Main) | Goodreads | MS Page | Facebook | Twitter |


Now… without further ado… here is Marin Yarthine:

The Maze: You’ve had quick the introduction to the Fae world, Marin… May I call you Marin?

Marin (reddened cheeks): Uhh… sure… I mean, that’s what most people call me… Kyland has called me Minzet, but I’m pretty sure that’s something just between us since it means Sweet One… but…yeah… Marin would be best.

The Maze (light chuckle): Great. Well, it's nice to sit down here… and as the new Princess to the Fae people, with such an odd upbringing… the Fae would love to know about you… Tell us a little bit about day to day life in the royal world.

Marin: Pfft… Most of the time I think they have the wrong girl… I mean… I was home schooled, and have worked at Finder’s Keepers since I turned 17… for the past four years I have been slipping into Finder’s Trances in order to locate everything from pets to abduction victims… from car keys to family heirlooms… it sounds like important work but really, I mostly had to pull a bunch of information together so that other Finders could go out on Mission to locate whatever the client had misplaced.

The Maze: That sounds like important work to me… also, something that would take a toll on your emotions… do you have someone to cuddle up to at night to help you get through the day?

Marin (Cheeks now flaming red): Kyland… he came out of nowhere and changed my life… and he doesn’t even mind when I accidentally shock him with this new power that has a tendency to get out of control when I’m upset…

The Maze: (shuffles through questions) What goals and hardships do you face… what do you want for the Fae? What are your plans to keep the Fae community safe?

Marin (head cocked to the side): I’m still learning about the Fae world, but I would say my goal is to keep as many people safe as I can… (fists clench) … if the evil Fae, those Danshue ********… sorry for my language, but if they would just stop getting in the way, I could learn a little faster… someone needs to stop the Danshue before this community I’m just getting to know dies out…

Sparks light up on Marin’s hands, but the interviewer sits unfazed.

The Maze: One final question and we will let you get back to your new duties as Princess. Can you tell us what fears you are facing in this new chapter of your life?

Marin: (Deep breath) Lindal… the woman that pretended to be my only family, that kidnapped me as a child (sparks on her fingertips) … I fear that she will find a way to finish what she started… (more sparks) … that she will find a way to hurt the people I am coming to care about… that she will hurt KYLAND … (small explosion blowing out all the lights)

The interviewer dodges the flying glass.

The Maze (flicking a shard off one shoulder): I do believe that's quite enough for today; thanks for stopping by, Princess!

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
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... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Alyse parted her lips to thank him in Time Enough to Love by @Jenna_Jaxon on #MedievalMonday

New on The Maze for Medieval Monday: the first kiss of the hero and heroine in Time Enough to Love by Jenna Jaxon! 

Excerpt

“It has been decreed by His Majesty that on the first day the festivities will begin with a procession of ladies and knights of King Arthur’s court, starting at the Tower of London and winding through the town out to the lists. There are to be twenty-five knights on the king’s side who will joust and fight in a pas d’armes. So there needs be twenty-five ladies as well, to escort them to the field.”

She nodded again. “Princess Joanna rides in this procession.” Her part in the festivities had been determined last week. Did he have anything truly new to impart?

“You have been chosen to be one of the ladies.”

Alyse’s mouth dropped open and a thrill coursed through her. “But I am only Princess Joanna’s attendant, Sir Geoffrey. Usually such honors are reserved for the queen and Princess Isabella’s ladies, or the Duchesses and Countesses in the Royal Family. Why did they choose me?”

“Because I am to be one of the knights, and I begged a boon of the king to allow you to be my lady.”

She stared at him in shock, almost unbelieving, though she knew he would not lie about such a thing. To think she owed such an honor to the man she would soon call husband, that he had asked the king himself to grant the favor, made her heart beat an unsteady march in her chest. Alyse parted her lips to thank him when he swooped forward, secured her chin in his hand and kissed her.

Strangely soft, yet very sweet, his touch sent a searing bolt straight to her stomach, setting it afire. After moments that seemed an eternity, his mouth slackened on hers as though he would release her. Then he flicked the tip of his tongue across the hard-pressed seam of her mouth, testing for another invitation.

With a gasp she jumped back, drawing a chuckle from Geoffrey, who had the grace to glance around to make sure they had not been observed. “Be not discomfited, sweet. We are safe in our conversation.”

“’Twas not in our conversation that I feared harm, my lord.” Lord, ’twas difficult to sound outraged when she could still feel his lips on hers.

Synopsis

When Lady Alyse de Courcy is betrothed to Sir Geoffrey Longford, she has no choice but to make the best of a bad bargain. The hulking knight is far from her ideal man, and although he does possess some wit and charm, he is no match for the sinfully sensual man she secretly admires, Thomas, Earl of Braeton, her betrothed’s best friend. 

From the first, Sir Geoffrey finds himself smitten by Lady Alyse, and, despite her infatuation with his friend, vows to win her love. When Geoffrey puts his mind to wooing Alyse, he is delighted to find her succumbing to his seduction. But when cruel circumstances separate them, Geoffrey must watch helplessly as Thomas steps in to protect Alyse—and falls in love with her himself.

As the three courtiers accompany Princess Joanna to her wedding in Spain, they run headlong into the Black Plague. With her world plunged into chaos, Alyse struggles with her feelings for both the men she loves. But which love will survive?

Buy link: Amazon

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
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— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Angusel answers for his rashness in Ch 10/Sc 3a of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay (c)2016 by Kim Headlee.

Though I delight in turning the Arthurian legends inside out in my fiction, one constant I've left unchanged is that Lancelot answers to Guinevere. 

Oh, sure, Lancelot has to take orders from Arthur from time to time—he is one of Arthur's soldiers, after all—but Guinevere is the one person to whom he has sworn absolute obedience in all matters.

In The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, the relationship of Angusel (a.k.a. Lancelot) to Gyanhumara (a.k.a. Guinevere) is no different, and today's excerpt provides a glimpse into its ever-evolving complexity.

Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings

 Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b |

Raging Sea Chapter 10, Scene 3a

©2016 by Kim Headlee

All rights reserved.

One perfunctory bath later, Angusel stood in front of the open clothes chest beside his cot in the First Ala barracks, naked save for the towel he’d girded about his loins, contemplating what she might have meant by “presentable.”

His status as one of the legion’s lowest-ranking officers and no longer possessing noble privileges had left him with but two choices: either his parade uniform or clean sparring gear. He opted for the crisp red linen tunic worn under his parade armor—the armor itself was stored with everyone else’s in the armory, which was always locked before supper except in the event of an attack—and best leggings, his officer’s cloak, and legion boots, the latter still bearing the training ring’s dust and scuffs.

The scuffs he could do nothing about without incurring her wrath for taking too long to report to her workroom, but he used the damp towel to wipe off the dust as best he could.

Once he was admitted into the lioness’s den, she studied him for what felt like forever. He battled the urge to retreat.

“Explain yourself,” she said at length, in Caledonaiche.

He decided that she meant his earlier behavior rather than his choice of dress, and drew a deep breath. “I was defending your honor.”

Her eyebrows shot up so fast that if his relationship with her had remained on its old footing, he’d have laughed. “Indeed? How do you justify defending honor with dishonor?”

“I—” He felt his eyes widen as the implication sank in. “I cannot. I’m sorry, my lady.” He averted his gaze, despising the all-too-familiar flush of shame. Behind him the door creaked open, and he heard the measured tread of someone entering the chamber, mayhap even more than one person, but he stood past caring who listened to this confession. He switched to Ròmanaiche to make it. “I was angry beyond all capacity for reason. I chose to act while in that state, and that was wrong of me.”

Please forgive me!

He couldn’t bring himself to voice the plea.

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

Something's in the water… The Cats of Cullaby Creek by @kimkasch in #EggcerptExchange

Today's Eggcerpt Exchange spotlight on The Maze:

Love is in the air.

Something else is in the water.

Find out what that "something else" is in
The Cats of Cullaby Creek by Kimbra Kasch! 

Synopsis
When Savannah meets Kyle, it's love at first sight. And why wouldn't it be? He's perfect, as far as she can tell. But Kyle appears whenever things go wrong. Maybe he isn't everything she thought he was. It's a complete mystery until she discovers the water in Cullaby Creek is being bottled and sold as vitamin “infused” water. Mistic Water promises the impossible.

And then, like a magical elixir, it delivers. People who drink it feel younger, smarter, faster...healthier. But it doesn’t take long before side effects hit. Literally. The secret has to be in the water…or is it something more?

EXCERPT:
Kelly and Kyle
These two shared some sort of history. And now I was in the middle of their story.

Sparks flew through the air. But, they didn’t seem to notice—or maybe they just didn’t care how uncomfortable they were making the rest of us.

I scanned the room. The terribly odd thing was that while they stood in the center of the cafeteria—arguing—everyone’s eyes were on me.

What is so interesting about me?
After a few seconds, I heard whispered accusations slammed back and forth, like a ping-pong ball. My name, muttered in odd and angry tones. No one seemed to mind staring at me, but only the bravest few were sneaking sideways glances over at Kelly and Kyle, hoping no one noticed.

This wasn’t what I needed on my first day at a new school. I hadn’t come here looking for instant enemies, but I knew I’d accidentally stirred a private pot and things were already starting to boil.

I needed to do something and quick. From the sounds floating around me, if they got into an actual argument, I was going to get the blame.

I spit out the first words I could think to say, “What’s a new kid to do, after school, around here… for fun?”

Kyle sighed and chuckled, “That depends on what you’re hoping to find and what you think is fun.” He stepped back away from Kelly for a moment. “You big city kids always think something needs to be going on. But in real life, in a small town, not much ever happens.”

“We could ask my Mom to drive us into Astoria to do some shopping,” I suggested. It was a little too obvious—even to me—Kelly wanted me out of the picture and was trying everything she could think of to keep me away from Kyle. I almost felt sorry for her—but only for a second.

“Or,” Kyle sat down and nodded for me to join him. I could feel a warm rush of air and his scent worked its way up inside my head. I barely heard him finish, “We could go for a run.”

“What?” Kelly demanded, clenching her hands into tight-balled fists at her side.

“Savannah,” Kyle lowered his voice and said my name slow, putting an emphasis on the last syllable, like it was a soft sigh, ‘ah’. And, for the first time in my life, I loved the sound of my own name. “Is a runner. And she’s fast. Aren’t ’cha?” He nudged me and moved even closer. I could barely think. His smell overpowered my senses; it was the sweet woodsy scent of him that took me by surprise. I closed my eyes and drank it in.

When I opened them back up, Kelly’s eyes were shooting red flames of rage straight at me.

I gazed at Kyle and felt a warmth in my stomach again. It was working its way up into my chest. “That’s not what you said this morning,” I laughed then spun away.

Learn a bit more about Savannah,
narrator of The Cats of Cullaby Creek:

• Favorite type of pet: Cat
• Favorite place to visit: Portland, OR
• Significant other: Kyle
• Most important goal: Get her family out of Mist
• Worst fear or nightmare: That Kyle won’t make it out of Mist
• Secret desire or fantasy: To Morph into a cougar
• What would you do if you won the lottery? Move and buy out Mistic Water.

View this great teaser video!



Buy Links:
Kindle | iBooks |

Follow Kim Kasch via:
Amazon Author Page | Websites KimKasch.com and KimbraKasch.com |
Blog | Facebook | Twitter |

***

Raging Sea: Reckonings by Kim Headlee is
FREE on Kindle today; don't miss out!

And today is the LAST DAY to enter this great giveaway for
an autographed copy of Dawnflight!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!

The Business of Writing: 7 Dos and Don'ts of Twitter Marketing for Authors #MFRWOrg

Marketing meme c2016 by Kim Headlee.
Woman jumping rope photo c2015 by undrey
Depositphotos ID 73127357.

Welcome to Twitter Marketing for Authors 101 on The Maze!

Today you get to benefit from my observations of what has and has not worked for me, marketing-wise, on Twitter over the past couple of years. Why is this important?

As a general rule, a reader will not take a chance on buying the work of a new-to-them author until s/he has seen mention of the book or author at least seven times. Twitter is great for improving those odds, especially if you can build a network of faithful retweeters. 

Contrary to popular belief, Twitter can result in sales—or at least, increased click-throughs to your author page or your book's product page. This exposure is what marketing is all about. Any resulting sales after that are pure gravy.

I'm going to start with the "Don'ts" because I'm contrary that way. :D

Don't…

1. Don't assume that there is any privacy in Twitter, even in Direct Messages. Structure your tweets and messages as if you're broadcasting them to the entire universe, including your Mom. Okay, so this isn't strictly marketing, but you can damage your author brand if you tweet something that you really didn't want being seen by God and everyone.
2. Don't start a tweet with someone's Twitter handle (@whatever), because the tweet will be seen only by you, @whatever, and mutual followers of you and @whatever. Just a single character ("." is common) in front of the "@" will increase your tweet's reach many times over. Most of the time, I try to start the tweet with a word of thanks or other type of greeting.
3. Don't #use #hashtags #too #much #in #your #tweets. It's annoying as #Hell and can make the tweet hard to read depending on your display settings. And #don't punctuate #hash-tags because that creates something you #didn't intend ("#don", "#hash", and "#didn", for example). You can, however, take advantage of this functionality to punctuate your Twitter handle, creating tweets like:
   Read all of @KimHeadlee's books because they're fantastic!
   Note: An underscore ("_") character may be used to separate words; for example, #Be_the_story, but that can be more trouble than mashing the words together, as in #BeTheStory. Those two examples do yield different Twitter searches; try it!
   
4. Don't tweet/retweet nothing but stuff about your books. That gets real boring real fast. Bored followers are not engaged followers.
5. Don't send out automated "Buy my book"/"Like my Facebook page"/"Connect with me on LinkedIn"/"Anything else" Direct Messages to new followers. Twitter's DM system is clunky and too annoying to live, especially with the lifting of the length restrictions. I (probably) will never unfollow anyone for sending me an unsolicited DM, whether automated or not, but I most certainly will never buy your book/like your Facebook page/connect with you on LinkedIn/anything else just because you commanded me to do so in your DM. And if you insist on keeping your automatic "welcome" DM, go ahead and keep it long winded too. That's an automatic guarantee that I won't read any of it as I'm activating the "Delete" function.



#KASIWC by @KimHeadlee

6. Don't automatically follow everyone who has followed you just because it's convenient and you're pressed for time. That can lead to some very questionable content showing up in your Twitter feed or DM inbox. As a rule, I do not follow anyone who offers to sell me followers on any platform, any account where either the profile or cover pic looks creepy or stalker-y, any account that has not yet tweeted anything, any account wherein all the tweets beg for money, any account that doesn't tweet at least something in English, or if the account's "about" statement or tweets or retweets violate my ethical code. It's a rare day when I look at my Twitter feed anymore; I usually go straight to notifications and start retweeting from there. Even so, I don't want questionable content in my feed, or as an excuse for someone to send me yet another unsolicited DM begging for something from me.
7. Don't use common handles (such as @amazon) or hashtags (such as #Kindle) in your tweets. The former is an utter waste of tweet space because nobody monitoring @amazon is going to care about =your= lone tweet, let alone retweet it, and your book will get lost in the ginormous pile of #Kindle-tagged (or #romance-tagged, etc.) tweets in about four nanoseconds. The object is to go for hashtag uniqueness. Click on #KASIWC if you have any question about how well this technique works.

Do…

1. Do check out a new follower's profile. If appropriate, retweet something of theirs or send him/her/it a direct tweet (just keep in mind Don't #2, above), and then follow the account back, because the more accounts you follow, the faster your following will grow. I admit this can be time consuming, however, and antsy people may unfollow you if you don't follow them in half a heartbeat, but in case you haven't noticed, there are PLENTY of birds in the Twitterverse sky. And the antsy people may follow you again anyway, especially if your content is worth following. For the record, I try to check my followers list once a day, usually in the evening (ET), so if you have followed my @KimHeadlee Twitter account, please be patient; I'll get to you! You shouldn't be antsy as a writer anyway. :D
2. Do engage personally with your followers whenever appropriate, and perhaps include a link to your book or author page if they have left a clue in their profile or tweets/retweets indicating that they might genuinely be interested in your work. Failure to perform this bit of basic research and social media etiquette can cause you to run the risk of being branded as a spammer by having too many users block your account or lodge complaints about you to Twitter Support.
3. Do set up worldwide Amazon links for your books and author page to increase your odds of landing foreign sales. A great site for this is Booklinker.net, because they allow you to specify your own Amazon Associates ID for any business unit where you might have one (US, UK, CA, etc.). I do get a fair number of affiliate sales that way, and you can too.
4. Do include balanced content in your tweets, such as blog posts about hobbies and pictures that interest you, other writers' tips, and so forth. A great way to do this, if you blog (and if you don't, read why you should HERE), is by setting up a free account at Triberr.com and then becoming a member of "tribes" of like-minded bloggers. After having been on Triberr for more than a year now, I am a member of 30+ tribes not including my own, I have 1K tribemates (other bloggers to potentially share my posts), a combined Twitter network reach of 14M (solo, my Twitter follower list is >14K at present), and within the first six months, my daily blog views increased one hundred fold. I don't care how bad you think you are at math (which is a fallacy since mathematics and language are processed in the same region of the brain ;-), that's a LOT of increased exposure.
5. Do set up cross-posting to Twitter with your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. This is another way to vary your content (unless all you're doing is a 24x7 infomercial about your work on those platforms too; see Don't #4, above).
6. Do establish a free account at Crowdfire.com or other such tool that allows you to easily manage your follower and following lists. My personal preference is to unfollow anyone who has unfollowed me the instant I follow them, because I'm not on Twitter to feed anyone's ego but my own. (Hey, ya can't fault a gal for exercising Truth in Advertising! :D)
7. Do establish a free account at Hootsuite.com or other such tool for scheduling tweets (my personal rule of thumb is one of my book-related tweets per hour), and save all your tweets as Drafts so you can tweet them again, using Hootsuite's link shortener, from time to time.
   
   If you have hundreds of reusable tweets, as I do, then I also recommend backing them up somehow. I use Excel, with separate tabs for each novel plus one for "other" tweets (my profile and web site pages, newsletter signup, etc.), and I have recently added a date/time column corresponding with the date/time I created the draft tweet in Hootsuite so I can find it more easily when I want to change it or use it.
   
   There are other such services out there (TweetJukebox.com, for example), but Hootsuite is in bed with Twitter and stands a much better chance of surviving what I have dubbed the "TwittRNazi App Pogroms." I've done the independent third-party-app route, and I have way too many tweets to risk going with a tool that might be shut down without notice or forethought. (Having Hootsuite recently chop a character off the "allowed" limit for plain text in scheduled tweets that include a link—without notice, and in spite of the fact that Twitter itself didn't raise its 23-character link size algorithm to 24—was annoying enough.)
   
   I haven't yet opted for the paid Hootsuite upgrade; if anyone has anything positive (or negative, for that matter) to say about whether their paid service has been worth it, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

There are a few other Twitter marketing trends I've seen lately, such as "quoting" (read, "hijacking") someone's tweet just to include a link to your totally unrelated item. Sometimes I retweet those and sometimes I don't, depending on how many of those I get in my notifications, how annoyed I am either by the hijack itself or if one of my cats has just crash-landed on top of me (I work underneath their tall perch, so this happens more often than you might think :D), and whether Jupiter is aligned with Mars.


Given a choice between receiving an automated Direct Message and an automated "welcome" tweet, I much prefer the latter—and most DMs I receive get deleted unread—but whether or not I retweet your "welcome" tweet depends upon its content and if I can use it to help balance the content of my Twitter output. Usually I'm happy to do so, but there have been exceptions too.

Thus endeth Twitter Marketing 101 for Authors. 
Happy writing, marketing, and tweeting!
 
***
Don't forget to enter this great giveaway for an autographed copy of Dawnflight!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
... and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books. Please enter often, and good luck!