Guest Blogger Author Sofia Grey--with a book giveaway!

Let’s give a warm welcome to my guest blogger for today—author Sofia Grey!

Here's Sofia!

 Anxious Annies

 

I have a friend who gets anxious about not wearing matching undies. She’d run the risk of being late for work if she couldn’t find the right panties to go with her bra, yet in all other regards, she was sound and unflappable. Another friend freaks out if a pigeon flies near her. She’ll cross the road to avoid walking close to one, and Trafalgar Square with its vast colony of pigeons would be her private hell.

I guess we all have our personal fears, and just to show willing, I’m going to share mine with you. Slides. I get stressed about slides, about actually going on a slide. I’m not a big fan of ladders anyway, and the idea of climbing a ladder, and then sliding back to earth again is a big NO in my book. I think it dates back to a school trip to a local amusement park. One of the attractions was an old fashioned helter-skelter, you know, where you spiral up to the top, and slide back down on a coconut mat. I made it to the top ok, herded along by my friends and classmates and then had my WTF moment at the top. Until I got there, I’d been able to ignore that somehow, I had to get back down again. I eyed the coconut mat. I peered down the top of the slide and then looked at the ground, so very far away.

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” said the attendant. “Take the mat, sit down and push off.”

“No,” I said (louder).

He was about to say ‘yes’ again, probably louder too, and then a well meaning friend shoved her way past me.

“Like this,” she said, grabbed the mat, and sailed down. I’d seen enough. I pushed my way back down the stairs, ignoring all the questions, right to the bottom and tried to get my breath back. It felt as though I’d done a 100m sprint. Ever since then, slides and me have not been on good terms.

In Obsession, Suki has to face up to her very private fears, anxieties buried so deep that her husband Gabe has no knowledge of them.

I poured myself a drink from the bottle Gabe had opened, and sat down at the table to flick through the newspaper abandoned at breakfast. My eyes may have been focused on the pages in front of me, but in my head I was remembering the guy in the café. I should have taken the ice after all; I didn’t realize I’d been scalded at the time. I was too embarrassed about throwing my drink all over him, too shocked at how I’d felt when he took my hand, and too scared that I’d spoken without realizing it. I’d swear I hadn’t said anything, yet he’d answered me.

I’m lucky with my anxiety trigger. I don’t get up close and personal with playgrounds every day, and it’s no big deal avoiding theme park rides as I almost never go to theme parks anyway. Tell me what freaks you out, and you’ll go into a draw to win a copy of Obsession.

 

Obsession is available June 12th, 2013, from Time & Tide Publishing.

Josh Delaney is the ideal honey trap.

His charm and model good looks would be enough for most women, but coupled with his psychic ability to read their thoughts, he’s impossible to resist. Suspicious husbands employ him to test their wives, to see if they can be tempted to stray.

High profile couple Suki and Gabe Bridgewater have the perfect marriage, or at least, that’s the image they portray to the world. Behind closed doors, Gabe’s dominance in the marriage is unravelling and he decides to test Suki, using Josh as bait.

 For Josh it should be just another easy job, but two things go horribly wrong.

One, Josh falls in love with Suki.

And two, Gabe refuses to let her go.

You can find Obsession through Amazon HERE! 

Check out Obsession's Trailer HERE

Blog tours are fun to take part in, these are my stops:

• 12 June - Layne Macadam (http://laynemacadam.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 13 June – Laura Kaye (http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 14 June – Lissa Matthews (http://lissamatthews.com/blog/)
• 15 June - Cover Reveals website (http://coverreveals.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 16 June –Ella Frank (http://ellafrank30.wordpress.com/)
• 17 June - Allyson Lindt (http://blog.apathyshero.com/)
• 18 June – Parker Kincade (http://parkerkincade.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 20 June –Trish McCallan (http://trishmccallan.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 21 June – Tina Carreiro (tinacarreiro.blogspot.com/)
• 23 June - Silken Sheets &Seduction (http://silkensheetsandseduction.wordpress.com/)
• 26 June – Sotia Lazu (http://justsotia.blogspot.co.nz/)
• 29 June - Love Lust & Laptops (http://lovelustandlaptops.wordpress.com/)

About Author
 

Romance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings.

Find her at: www.sofiagrey.com and on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sofiagrey1, or on Twitter @SofiaGreyAuthor

* images courtesy of 123rf.com

Woot!! Big News!

Let me throw a couple of Woo-Hoos out there too!

It's with great excitement and more than a little disbelief, that I announce that Forged in Fire finaled in both the Best First Book and Best Romantic Suspense category of Romance Writers of America's 2013 RITA contest.

It's a double RITA finalist!!!

For those who don't know what the RITA is, let me educate you, or, I should say- let RWA educate you since I am pulling this directly from the organization's website--

"The purpose of the RITA contest is to promote excellence in the romance genre by recognizing outstanding published romance novels and novellas. The award itself is a golden statuette named after RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada, and has become the symbol for excellence in published romance fiction."

Which means that Forged in Fire is both outstanding and excellent. *preens*

At least to the five judges who read it during the first round of RITA judging.

Because winning any book/writing contest is all about the judges you draw and I happened to hit the jackpot for this year's RITA contest. 

So my thanks to the judges who scored FiF high enough to allow it to final. This double final made my day, heck--it made my week! :)

Cover Reveal. . . Here's Cosky! Forged in Ash!

Look What Came In The Mail Yesterday!

 

This is the first time I've held an actual physical copy of Forged in Fire. I never got around to formatting for a paper copy when I'd originally self-published it. I always intended to, but it just never happened. There is something so . . . satisfying about holding that hefty weight in my hand.

I never got that feeling with holding the Kindle when the book was on it. LOL

Trish & Norah's Big iPad Giveaway

CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!!!!

Norah Wilson, another Montlake author who has a book debuting on September fourth,(the same day my Forged in Fire releases) and I have pooled resources so we can hold one kick-ass contest. We're giving away a 64 GB, Wi-Fi capable, iPad 2. The contest is easy to enter, just click on the link and scowl down the page to where it says Contest Details.

So go check it out and enter! Trish & Norah's BIG Giveaway

Best of luck to everyone!

Heads Up!

Just Romantic Suspense is doing a spotlight on Montlake Romance today, and Forged in Fire is one of the books being featured. Montlake has donated several books for a giveaway, so if you hop on over and comment on the post, you just may win your choice of the books featured.







Also, Gennita Low, who previously published sexy thrillers with hot, alpha SEAL heroes through Avon and MIRA, has gotten her rights back on her Avon back list and has self-published several of the books.

 

Hunter, one of the books in her Crossfire series, is free through Amazon for a limited time. You can download the book for free here.

Forged in Fire's First Year Sales and Royalties Report

This a my first post on my pretty new blog, which is linked to my fantastic new website, which was paid for by royalties from a book that I originally self-published, but was picked up by Montlake Romance and is scheduled for re-publication on September 4th.

When I first self-published I intended to share my sales numbers, marketing strategy and success or failure with the blog-sphere in the hope sharing information and strategies might help everyone in the long run. But as often happens, life got too complicated and busy and I posted less and less and finally quit completely. 

But I've always intended to do a yearly totals once my book had been up a full year. As it happens, my book won't make a full year, at least not as a self-published title. After speaking with my Montlake marketing team earlier this week, I decided to pull my version of the title down and give the book a rest before Montlake releases their version on Sept 4th.

I unpublished it on Tuesday, 11.5 months after I'd self-published it.

It's fitting that I post the final sales and revenue the book brought in through this past year here, on the blog that matches the website that the book paid for.  

When I started this self-publishing journey I was an unknown author, with no publishing history, no fan base and no real platform. I think I had about 170 followers on twitter and 20 on Facebook. But none of that ended up mattering. I did a month long blog tour to introduce my book, as well as set up other guest blogs through sites I knew readers gathered. I also posted the book, one scene at a time, to Wattpad, where it quickly gathered a following. Some of my first sales were to Wattpadders, as were my first reviews. 

I published the book Sept 7th, 2011. September’s royalties were right around $400 dollars. In mid-October about half way through my blog tour, the book took off. Since then my lowest monthly royalty was $2800. (October's) My highest monthly royalty was $12,800. (Febuary's)  Most months it averages between $4500-6000 a month, with several months hitting around $9000.

The lowest the book dropped in the Kindle Store was #30, and it only stayed down there for a day or so. But it was enough to get me KDP's attention and they actually assigned me a KDP representative. O-O

The book had sold 9,998 copies by the last day of December. Since Jan 1st, 2012 its sold an additional 33,619 copies, for a total of 43,621copies since publication. (I include borrows in this figure. Since we get paid for them, I count them as a sale) To date the book has earned $88,732 in royalties.

A couple of interesting side notes. Back when I first published FiF, I would have KILLED to get a letter from KDP asking if they could use my book in one of their promos. Wouldn't you know it, the letter finally came on the fifteenth of August, a week before I'd promised to pull my book down.  #headdesk

While I haven't been approached by any movie companies, or foreign publishing houses looking to buy subsidiary rights, (more's the pity) I have been approached by several agents, including one who had rejected the book off the query ten months prior. I've also been approached by a couple of editors from the Big Six Houses!

Very surreal to have them coming to you! LOL

At the moment I don't have any titles up at all, self-published or otherwise. Forged in Fire will be re-released on September 4th. But I'm also planning to self-publish Yesterday's Child, a paranormal romantic suspense, on December 5th.  I tell you, December can't come fast enough. I'm having dashboard withdrawals.

Here's the cover of Yesterday's Child. 

My editor called Yesterday's Child an intriguing mix of Twin Peaks, Pet Cemetery and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. LOL

Here's a quick Blurb:

When her son vanishes without a trace, Deborah St. James is the prime suspect in her child’s disappearance. Until nine years later, when he walks back through her door: without having aged a day, wearing the same clothes he disappeared in, and with no memory of the previous nine years.