Guest post written by Joseph Finch
There are so many advertisements on TV these days. We use our direct tv packages just about every evening to watch different shows. No matter what channel we watch, there are, of course, always advertisements for something. Some of the ads are funny, but after seeing the same ones again and again, it starts to get old. There have been a ton of car commercials on this holiday season. Honestly, I cannot believe how many there have been. It seems like I have seen at least one or two for each different popular car brand. Lexus and Toyota probably have run the most in the past month or so. My dad thinks it is because this is not a good time for cars because people are spending their money on other things. I would have guessed the opposite based on how many ads. It seems like the ads are everywhere and cars too. It does not seem like the products with the most ads are not selling well to me. The ads I see the most are for things it seems like everyone has and buys. I guess that is why I am not in advertising.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Writer Tips
Social Media – Learn it. Use it. Master it. It’s that simple. You have NO choice nowadays but to be on social media. If you're a shy person, quit writing and expecting money to roll in. 
Read editor blogs like mine and Guide to Literary Agents. The information there is jam packed with tips outside of my experiences. Also, don’t forget WriteSEX
Take classes on craft, marketing and education. This advice hails from the importance of learning and expanding your ability to write about various genres, cross genre write and refine your voice. Unlike investing and “Get rich quick” classes, the real profits belong to both the instructor AND the students. FYI, I teach two classes and that information can be found here
Read editor blogs like mine and Guide to Literary Agents. The information there is jam packed with tips outside of my experiences. Also, don’t forget WriteSEX
Take classes on craft, marketing and education. This advice hails from the importance of learning and expanding your ability to write about various genres, cross genre write and refine your voice. Unlike investing and “Get rich quick” classes, the real profits belong to both the instructor AND the students. FYI, I teach two classes and that information can be found here
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Gift of Giving through Corporate Gifts
I discovered a reason to post as of late! I know it's been awhile but with deadlines, holidays, events and such, time hasn't been on my side. Yet I've received presents from special folks and even a few Corporate Gifts. Those were nice, not because of the cost but rather the fact that someone decided to take time out and really show me they paid attention.
See, a big part of my belief system includes giving back to the community and the local economy but also the global economy. The practice of giving a unique corporate gift does this by helping circulate money. From your company, to the person purchasing the gift flows cash and while it's not as precious as a simple phone call, it serves a purpose.
In hurried times it doesn't require much thought to employ the practice of corporate gift giving. There are many fine sites to suit a variety of needs.
See, a big part of my belief system includes giving back to the community and the local economy but also the global economy. The practice of giving a unique corporate gift does this by helping circulate money. From your company, to the person purchasing the gift flows cash and while it's not as precious as a simple phone call, it serves a purpose.
In hurried times it doesn't require much thought to employ the practice of corporate gift giving. There are many fine sites to suit a variety of needs.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
To have or not have an agenda
That IS the question my publicist asked some time back in her facebook feed
The number of authors that responded about their beliefs and how they sneak into stories wasn't anything out of the ordinary and didn't raise any eyebrows from this editor until I received an email from one of my authors discussing his beliefs about our market at Sizzler Editions and m/m stories.
The way the email (to me) was worded made him sound like an uninformed writer so I politely set the record straight (haha) for him. He did some research and as I knew he would, he came back and confirmed my point on the topic.
I bring this up to make a point. When writing a story, the key thing is to ask yourself: Why are you writing this story? Is it to tell a great story of love gone wrong, gone right with the appropriate partner(s)? Or is it to advance an agenda?
The truth only really matters if we're talking about sales. If you've built up your audience the way any author should, then your only worry is whether your fans agree or disagree with your viewpoint. In the case of erotic romance, there IS NO ROOM FOR AN AGENDA OF ANY SORT.
Romance readers do NOT want to deal with the real world struggles of the day, nor do they want to hear some author, established or not spew forth an opinion. They want to escape into a fantasy world we create whereby the same sort of challenges can be overcome but the ultimate challenge is, can your couple make it til the end of the story?
The key of romance stories is that "love conquers all." The reason this is so popular is because our world, our reality is so fucked. As of this writing, there was talk about Prop 8 being passed AGAIN. IT failed. Three times. Gays in California do NOT want marriage. (based solely on the failure to pass this proposition) And there is talk of another proposition trying to legalize weed smoking in California, again an initiative that failed to rally enough votes to pass. On a larger scale, there's the stilted economy, trouble in the Mid East and more shit than we know what to do with.
Readers spend money on authors they trust to take them out of this nonsense. They're parting with dollars in hopes that you the author will take them on a magical journey of love, lust, ecstasy, grief, in short, an emotional gauntlet that ends with an HEA.
Yes I do occasionally sneak in my beliefs into my stories, usually as humor. How many people think John Kerry is dead and no one's told him yet? The answer? He's a vampire!
If you've got an agenda, save it for non fiction.
The number of authors that responded about their beliefs and how they sneak into stories wasn't anything out of the ordinary and didn't raise any eyebrows from this editor until I received an email from one of my authors discussing his beliefs about our market at Sizzler Editions and m/m stories.
The way the email (to me) was worded made him sound like an uninformed writer so I politely set the record straight (haha) for him. He did some research and as I knew he would, he came back and confirmed my point on the topic.
I bring this up to make a point. When writing a story, the key thing is to ask yourself: Why are you writing this story? Is it to tell a great story of love gone wrong, gone right with the appropriate partner(s)? Or is it to advance an agenda?
The truth only really matters if we're talking about sales. If you've built up your audience the way any author should, then your only worry is whether your fans agree or disagree with your viewpoint. In the case of erotic romance, there IS NO ROOM FOR AN AGENDA OF ANY SORT.
Romance readers do NOT want to deal with the real world struggles of the day, nor do they want to hear some author, established or not spew forth an opinion. They want to escape into a fantasy world we create whereby the same sort of challenges can be overcome but the ultimate challenge is, can your couple make it til the end of the story?
The key of romance stories is that "love conquers all." The reason this is so popular is because our world, our reality is so fucked. As of this writing, there was talk about Prop 8 being passed AGAIN. IT failed. Three times. Gays in California do NOT want marriage. (based solely on the failure to pass this proposition) And there is talk of another proposition trying to legalize weed smoking in California, again an initiative that failed to rally enough votes to pass. On a larger scale, there's the stilted economy, trouble in the Mid East and more shit than we know what to do with.
Readers spend money on authors they trust to take them out of this nonsense. They're parting with dollars in hopes that you the author will take them on a magical journey of love, lust, ecstasy, grief, in short, an emotional gauntlet that ends with an HEA.
Yes I do occasionally sneak in my beliefs into my stories, usually as humor. How many people think John Kerry is dead and no one's told him yet? The answer? He's a vampire!
If you've got an agenda, save it for non fiction.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Husband hates facebook
Guest post written by my buddy Keith Kramer
My husband thinks I have a serious problem. I will admit to it, to some degree. I have become obsessed with Facebook. While I do not look at it as a problem, he is starting to regret ever getting satellite internet. However, I love Facebook. I am easily able to talk to all my friends. I am able to keep up with people that are in different states and even different countries. It is an amazing site and I do not know how I would talk to some of my friends if it weren’t for Facebook. My husband, on the other hand, is completely against Facebook. He thinks people waste way too much time on it and share way too much personal information. To some degree, he is correct, but without all the sharing it would not be as interesting. I am hopeful he will one day get his own Facebook account, but I am not sure it will ever happen. I am convinced that if he sees all there is to offer, and then he will change his mind. I guess for now I will be continually arguing that my “problem” is normal.
My husband thinks I have a serious problem. I will admit to it, to some degree. I have become obsessed with Facebook. While I do not look at it as a problem, he is starting to regret ever getting satellite internet. However, I love Facebook. I am easily able to talk to all my friends. I am able to keep up with people that are in different states and even different countries. It is an amazing site and I do not know how I would talk to some of my friends if it weren’t for Facebook. My husband, on the other hand, is completely against Facebook. He thinks people waste way too much time on it and share way too much personal information. To some degree, he is correct, but without all the sharing it would not be as interesting. I am hopeful he will one day get his own Facebook account, but I am not sure it will ever happen. I am convinced that if he sees all there is to offer, and then he will change his mind. I guess for now I will be continually arguing that my “problem” is normal.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Opening the Cafe
Author: Dorsey Velasquez
We opened our French café a year back in downtown Houston and things have been going really well. The lunch and breakfast crowds are great and people really seem to be responding to the way we’ve set up the shop and how we serve our food which was my whole goal all along. I love being a small business owner and taking everything into my own hands and getting to work with my wife all day every day is actually working out better than I ever imagined. Someone told me about ShopElectricityRatesTexas.com the other day and I’ve been meaning to go since our electricity bills have just been out of control with all the baking and the lighting and such. And I’ve got to carve out some time to find some more part time help but you don’t understand how tough it is to set aside interview time and even to find quality people to interview! I love what we’re doing but it’s a lot more work than any other job I’ve had in my life.
We opened our French café a year back in downtown Houston and things have been going really well. The lunch and breakfast crowds are great and people really seem to be responding to the way we’ve set up the shop and how we serve our food which was my whole goal all along. I love being a small business owner and taking everything into my own hands and getting to work with my wife all day every day is actually working out better than I ever imagined. Someone told me about ShopElectricityRatesTexas.com the other day and I’ve been meaning to go since our electricity bills have just been out of control with all the baking and the lighting and such. And I’ve got to carve out some time to find some more part time help but you don’t understand how tough it is to set aside interview time and even to find quality people to interview! I love what we’re doing but it’s a lot more work than any other job I’ve had in my life.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Streamlining things
I knew when we started having trouble last year paying our bills that it was time to streamline. We’d been living a little above our means for a long time and when the recession hit, my husband lost his job. It didn’t take long for us to realize we had to do something, so we started looking for areas we could cut some costs. I stopped getting my hair done at the salon and started doing it myself. It looks better and I’m saving us over a grand a year! I did some research at http://www.newyorkenergyrates.com/ to find us a company that could get a better energy rate and did a few other similar searches for our other utilities. We’ve got the house on the market and are looking to downsize, but it may be a while before it gets sold. Things are starting to look up and I’m not feeling so scared anymore, so that’s a good thing. I know it will all turn around again but we’ve got time!
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