Hi Friends,

I’ve just launched a new T-shirt line on Threadless. Ask yourself these questions and if you answer yes, you probably should get one!
-Are you the person who buys the tickets to Star Wars opening night?
-Are you the person who cleans up the night after a long game of D&D?
-Are you the person who drives everyone to Comic Con?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you are a Nerd Herder and deserve this shirt. 
https://nerdherdertee.threadless.com/

 I’ve been a fan of Rachel Blaufeld’s for a long time having read Break Point, Absolution Road, and Redemption Lane.  When I saw that she had a new book out, Heart Stronger and read the description I was hooked.

Claire and Aiken’s story was one of my favorites and I couldn’t put it down.  Aiken is an old soul for his age and Claire is feeling older than her years.  He’s the thing that can help save her and show her a life she’d been missing.  But will she let him in?  I really loved this book and I can’t recommend it enough.  1-click it today its Free on Kindle Unlimited.

If you aren’t familiar with Rachel Blaufeld she is a bestselling author of Romantic Suspense, New Adult, Coming-of-Age Romance, and Sports Romance.  You can check out her full library of books here.

Rachel took five minutes out of her busy day of writing to answer my five burning questions.

1. Let’s start off with Kill, Marry or Screw? Gideon Cross, Kellan Kyle or Aiken?
Kill – Gideon Cross, Screw – Kellan Kyle, Marry – Aiken (he’s good guy).

2. Do you remember the first romance book you ever read?
Can you tell me about it? Honestly, I don’t. In high school and college, I devoured Faye Kellerman Romance/Mysteries and Catherine Coulter. Whatever paperbacks I could get my hands on, I’d read. I guess that’s why my first book was written as a Romantic Suspense. As for my first Contemporary Indie Romance, it may have been The Proposition by Katie Ashley. I can’t remember.

3.  What type of stories would you like to write but haven’t yet?
Menage, BDSM or a sexless romance.  I don’t think I can write BDSM well. It would involve a lot of research on my part and there is a huge segment of it done extremely well. I would like to write a story completely from the male POV. I wonder if anyone would read it?

4. What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t writing or reading? 
Run, yoga, eat donuts and watch NCAA basketball. In no particular order.

5. If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone to it, who would it be? Celebrities, book boyfriends, intellectuals or anyone. Name five people.
Not celebrities, but my author friends. We get so little time together face-to-face. Fabiola Francisco, Christy Pastore, Cary Hart, Jewel E. Ann, and  Jana Aston.

6. For bonus points, what’s your favorite swear word?
Fuck. IT just is my favorite.

You should stalk Rachel on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachelblaufeldtheauthor/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TunnelVIPS/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachelblaufeld
Instagram: http://instagram.com/rachelblaufeld
Website: http://www.rachelblaufeld.com/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bbA2DT

POINTING AT ME: How do our readers find us?
DISCOVERY is the word of the day!

Just like Blake Shelton on The Voice pointing at himself to get picked to be on his team. As indie authors, we have to put our hand over our head and point at ourselves to get readers attention. The key is to be as charming as Blake Shelton but maybe not as drunk.

In the past, we needed a publisher to shine a light on us, now we have to do it ourselves. Unfortunately, I believe for many authors this is counter-intuitive to our nature. As writers, we want to sit in a room and be alone in the dark with our characters and stories. Not out there shouting to pay attention to us.

As an avid reader here’s something you should know about the authors plight and what you should know about why you might not be finding new authors.

The Mystery of the Algorithm: Words + Math = Sales

There are SO many authors out there promoting their own stuff using Newsletters, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and so many other platforms to be discovered. Doing their best to scream above the noise and it’s not easy to get your attention. With all those tools you still have one other mountain to climb to be discovered and that’s the Amazon & Apple algorithm, which has nothing to do with words and it’s all about the numbers.

Do you know most people buy their books from the Amazon Top 100 chart or Amazon recommendations? I used to do that exclusively now I use blog reviews and social media for my recommendations. Amazon no longer controls my choices and I feel so much better.

Let me tell you a little how the Amazon list works its not purely on sales, it is also based on the number of reviews, clicks and some other mysterious options that aren’t disclosed. If you are a well-known author staying in the charts is much easier, discovering a new author is very difficult for this reason.

When ebooks first started there was a great rush in discovering new authors like Jamie McGuire and SC Stephens. Do you remember that feeling? I find it’s getting harder and harder to find that special author because there’s no place to be discovered. Do you have the same issue?

The reason is the algorithm! Have you noticed that so many books will end with the author begging you to leave a review? This isn’t because we need your validation. Of course, it would be nice. The reason is that it helps boost our books up the charts which then makes sure the books are found which will translate to sales. Ultimately this means we get to keep writing stories you like.

Look I am guilty as anyone it’s tough to take the time to write a review because we think we have to write some beautiful heartfelt review that so many people do on Amazon. Don’t sweat it, you don’t have to be Shakespeare! Next time you finish a book and the Kindle asks you to leave review take two minutes and give the books a 5-star review and say, “it was great, I’d recommend to friends”. They don’t have to be long winded but one more review for a book they worked long and hard on will make a difference to the numbers.

Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, it’s all about the math, not the words that sell our books, however, if you take the time to leave a review you will continue to be able to write the words.

PS-Leave a nice review.:}

You can find my book Instant Connection Vol 1. on Amazon

My favorite author Jane Harvey-Berrick has teamed up with former Rugby player and book cover king Stuart Reardon to write her new book Undefeated that is out on January 23. I am really excited to read this new sports romance and I took a few minutes to ask Jane a few questions about her new collaboration. Check out what Jane had to say about how it came about and how they worked together.

Jane: I had an idea for a rugby romance based on his experience. It was Stu’s idea to make it a little more personal. It’s not a story about him, but it’s very much his story, if that makes sense.

We discussed the plot at length and then I did several interviews with Stu, lasting a couple of hours at times. Making notes about his answers, trying to get a ‘feel’ for the way he thought and spoke. Also got a lot of behind-the-scenes locker room pranks that didn’t make it into the story.

It was also a fast learning curve for me to find out about rugby. We also decided to make it Union rather than League, as it’s the better known game, especially outside the UK.

I hammered out sections and Stu (and Lynda) commented on them and came back with ideas, thoughts and changes. And the best parts were when Stu sent voice messages, acting out the scenes. Hilarious! Wish you could hear them!! SUCH a fun way to collaborate. I pretty much transcribed those and they made it into the story with almost no changes.

For both of you-What was the biggest surprise you had while working on the book?  The reason I ask is Jane has never written a sports book so did you find a love for rugby now? Did you have a love for rugby?  Was there something else that 

surprised you about the actual collaboration? Stu will you write another book on your own?

Yes, I’m watching a lot of rugby now!! Scotland last night! WOOHOO!

What surprised me most was how funny Stu is. Not that I didn’t think you didn’t have a sense of humour, hon, but you are FUNNY!!! I was also surprised how emotional the rugby scenes were. At the end, I was typing and crying!

We have a sequel planned. We hadn’t even finished UNDEFEATED when we started discussing a sequel. UNDEFEATED doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, so I think people will be surprised by how much happens in book 2, entitled MODEL BOYFRIEND. We don’t have a date for that yet – next year!!

The story behind the story… or why I wrote a book with a man who has never written before!

This photo is from a year ago. It was taken at a book event in Dublin, Ireland. It was my first time in the Emerald Isle and I loved it!It wasn’t the first time I’d met international rugby player and cover model Stuart Reardon. We’d met at a couple of other signings and once I’d gotten over being intimidated (beautiful people often intimidate me – plus I’m wearing heels and he’s really tall!), I found him to be a lovely, down-to-earth guy and easy to talk to.

But if you saw a lot of photographs from that event with all the readers wanting to go and hug Stu (well, you would, wouldn’t you), you’d notice that in the majority of the photos he has his left hand in his pocket. That’s not a coincidence – it was because he was recovering from surgery on a serious injury, sustained while playing rugby. A torn rotator cuff, if you’re interested – lots of rugby/football/baseball players get this injury, apparently.

For Stu, a man who’d played for his country fifteen times, a man who’d made rugby his life, it was a career-ending injury.

I started thinking then, what must it me like to have to give up the career you love so suddenly?

And I started thinking about a book…

Check out her other new title:
Carnival (The Traveling Series #4)
Get the others in the series now on Kindle Unlimited for FREE!!
The Traveling Man (The Traveling Series #1)
The Traveling Woman (The Traveling Series #2)
Roustabout (The Traveling Series #3)

Subscribe to Jane’s newsletter to keep up on all her new releases and sales.
Follow Jane on her social media:
Website: http://janeharveyberrick.co.uk/
Instagram: @jharveyberrick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JHBWrites/
Twitter: @jharveyberrick

Follow Stuart Reardon’s social media:
Website: http://www.stuartreardon.co.uk
Instagram: @stureardon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuartreardon17/
Twitter: @stureardon 

There’s two things I am sucker for in a romance story.  First is a single Dad and a very close second place is a Rock n Roll romance. Stina Lindenblatt got me with both! I discovered her when she released her rock n roll romance This One Moment and This Songs for You then I was hooked. Check out the series here.

When I saw her single dad new release Decidedly With Baby (By The Bay Book 2) she had me in 1-click.  You don’t have to have read book one in the series to enjoy this book. Although you should read Decidedly Off Limits!

Check out Stina’s amazon page for a full list of all her books. She’s a definite 1-click author to add to your e-reader.

She took time away from her writing to answer my five burning questions.

1. Let’s start off with Kill, Marry or Screw? Gideon Cross, Kellan Kyle or Josh?
No idea who Gideon Cross is…so kill him. Marry Josh because I know he’s a wonderful father and husband. ;)Screw Kellan Kyle… but only because I can’t marry him and Josh. But he is one of my all-time favorite book boyfriends.   

2. Do you remember the first romance book you ever read? Can you tell me about it? 
That’s hard to say because it was a long time ago. I was a teenager at the time. I was big time fan of Sweet Dream romances at the time, so it had to be one of them.

3. What got you into writing romance? 
After the Sweet Dream romances came historical romances. And wow were they steamy. Fortunately, my mother didn’t realize she kept buying me books that she would have no doubt considered highly inappropriate for a sixteen year old. While reading them, I decided I wanted to write historical romances one day. It wasn’t until I started writing years later that I quickly realized that as much as I loved the style and voice of the genre, it was one I didn’t think I would excel at.

4. What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t writing or reading?
Between those two things and being a mother to three teens, I don’t have a lot of free time. I run and I love photography. I especially love close-up photography.

5. If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone to it, who would it be? Celebrities, book boyfriends, intellectuals or anyone. Name five people.
Kellan Kyle: Just because he’s Kellan Kyle. Chris Hemsworth: I could listen to his accent all day.JK Rowling: Because I admire her both as an author and as an individual who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Jill Shalvis: One of my favorite/auto-buy authors.TJ Brodie: One of my favorite hockey players from the Calgary Flames.  

6. For bonus points, what’s your favorite swear word?  Fuck—because it just says it all.

Please include your social media links.  
Website: http://stinalindenblattauthor.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/StinaLindenblattAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StinaLL
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stinalindenblatt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/stinall/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/stina-lindenblatt
FB reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/872757169494007/

I will confess that I am late to the party for Kimberly Adams books but after reading this amazing review on Totally Booked blog I am a convert. Check out the review for First and you’ll  1-clicking away.  Check out her other books on her Amazon page that include the series Below Unforgiven (The Movie Book 1) and Roam.

Kimberly took a few minutes out of her busy writing schedule to answer my five burning questions.

1. Let’s start off with Kill, Marry or Screw? Gideon Cross, Kellan Kyle or Grant?   Good question! I’ll put a twist on it and choose three of my main characters in my books, so West, Troy, and Grant. Marry- Grant, Kill-Troy, and Screw- West of course 😉

2. Do you remember the first romance book you ever read? Can you tell me about it?
The first romance novel I ever read was Perfect by Judith McNaught. It became one of my favorite books of all time- innocent young woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, “abducted” by escaped convicted murderer famous Hollywood director, they fall in love…. *sighhhhh* I devoured all of Judith McNaught’s books- she is one of my favorite authors!

3. What got you into writing romance?
I have always written since I could. I was in writing competitions as a pre-teen and teen and wrote plays, fan fiction, romance novels, etc. There was no particular moment, just a progression of writing. In 2012 my daughter declared that she “hated reading.” GASP. I promised her that I’d write her something she’d want to read. So I wrote Roam. (And she did :})

4. What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t writing or reading? 
I love spending time with my husband and children on our small Ohio farm, and just being outside- when it’s not snowing!

5. If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone to it, who would it be?  Celebrities, book boyfriends, intellectuals or anyone.
My husband, because he’s my best friend in the world. That’s it. I’m still on my honeymoon (though it’s been almost three years.) :}

6. For bonus points, what’s your favorite swear word?
Fuckety-fuck-fuck. I’m so creative, haha

Stalk Kimberly on social media here:
Website: www.adamsromance.com
Twitter: @kimadamsauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkimberlyadams/
Amazon: amazon.com/author/kimberlyadams

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a sucker for Torso Porn! The covers for Kindle’s books drew me in but the humor and sexy stories had me stay. If you aren’t familiar with best selling and award winning author Kindle Alexander innovative writing, stories that are genre-crossers from classic fantasy, romance, suspense, and erotica in the male/male genre. Her characters always have great voices and sexy stories. Check out the first in her football steamy series-Double Full (A Nice Guys Novel Book 1)  or her Gold Winning award LGPT book Painted On My Heart 

I am grateful for Kindle taking time out of their busy schedule to answer my five burning questions and more.  Enjoy!

Here’s the questions:

1. Let’s start off with Kill, Marry or Screw? Gideon Cross, Kellan Kyle or William Levy?    I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know Kellan. *Hangs head in shame* I’ll correct that ASAP. BUT it makes it easier. Kellan is a kill. Any of our guy’s would be a screw, but they’re gay and happy so no marriage. I’ll marry Gideon. He’s a bit of a mess, but that’s okay.   William Levy is my book boyfriend. He’s in lots of the guys we write. I’ll include a picture. 

2. Do you remember the first romance book you ever read? Can you tell me about it? EDITORS NOTE: I think mine was Bitch by Jackie Collins and I was about 10 or 11. The one I remember is Forever, by Judy Blume. The paperback circulated around my Junior High and I finally got my chance. Changed my life. <3  

3. What type of stories would you like to write but haven’t yet? Menage, BDSM or a sexless romance. The sexless romance should come with a warning. Don’t you think?  Not sexless romance, new love is so passionate. I can’t think of anything I’d like to write that we havent. MM is pretty awesome just on its own. 

4. What other authors (other than yourself) would you suggest for someone thinking about getting into M/M romance?  Nicole Edwards, Cambria Hebert, Aly Martinez, Sarina Bowen, Melanie Harlow, Faith Gibson, Kris Michaels – they write MM and MF. They bring you in slowly, but completely. Then for MM authors, watch my Facebook page. I have so many favorites that I post all the time.  

5. If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone to it, who would it be? Celebrities, book boyfriends, intellectuals or anyone. Name five people.  William Levy, Mitch Knox, Avery Adams, Sheryl Sandburg, Oprah. I think… I’d like to meet the Pope, he seems at peace.

6. For bonus points, what’s your favorite swear word?  Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

Stalk Kindle Alexander on social media: 
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2eGC59K
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKindleAlexander/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KindleAlexander
Website: www.kindlealexander.com

1.  Let’s start off with Kill, Marry or Screw? Gideon Cross, Kellan Kyle or Mateo?  
No killing, just marrying and screwing. 🙂 Marry Gideon and Kellan. Screw Mateo. (Because he’s a little young for me. I’m assuming screwing comes with marrying. *grins*) 

2.  Do you remember the first romance book you ever read? Can you tell me about it?  EDITORS NOTE: I think mine was Bitch by Jackie Collins and I was about 10 or 11.

I read my first romance as an adult. (I know! So sad. But I was a mysteries girl growing up.) It was The Bachelor by Carly Phillips and I loved it!! I immediately went out and bought another one of her books. Then another. I’ve been devouring romance novels ever since! 

3.  What type of stories would you like to write but haven’t yet? Menage, BDSM or a sexless romance. The sexless romance should come with a warning. Don’t you think?
Menage. Yep, I like sex in my romances, too! 

4.  What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t writing or reading?
When I’m not writing or reading I love to go to the beach, hike, and just hang out with my hubby.

5. If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone to it, who would it be?  Celebrities, book boyfriends, intellectuals or anyone.  

 Barack Obama, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Julia Roberts, and Colleen Hoover.

6.  For bonus points, what’s your favorite swear word?
Fuck.

Stalk her on social media: 

http://facebook.com/robinbielmanwriter

http://twitter.com/robinbielmanwriter

 http://instagram.com/robin_bielman

 http://goodreads.com/robinbielmanwriter