Here I am again! Andi overload this week. Hee hee!

Just one thing and then I’m throwing the floor open to readers/other writers. I’m particularly interested in what readers do when they find an author they really like. I’ll ask that in a minute. In the meantime. . .

Here’s a cool promo thing that I and my co-editor R. G. Emanuelle commissioned through candle artist Jfay and Studio 3B. Jfay also has a site called “Wick’d Reads” (clever, no?) in which she puts images of candles up along with a book cover. The candles are specifically designed to accompany each cover. The anthology is Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Women Pirates. Here’s the page on Wick’d Reads.

And yes, I do believe that the artist can offer that candle for sale. It has a signature scent designed specifically for the candle that contains sandalwood, cloves, cinnamon, and cedar (cleverly named “Walk the Plank). You can slap that scent on other candles you order from Studio 3B.

Stay tuned–I’ll probably be giving away one of those candles at a later date. YEAH!

Now, READERS! And other authors, if you wanna chime in:

Okay, here we go. I wanted to throw the floor open to readers. If you have fave authors, first, do you like to follow what they’re up to and if so, what venues do you choose to do that? For example, do you use Facebook or MySpace? If so, do you look up your fave authors and friend them? Or would you prefer to have, say, a Facebook fan page of that author just to get updates?

Do you visit authors’ personal websites when you discover an author? If so, what do you look for when you go to that website?

I’m asking because I recently was contacted on Facebook by a reader who wanted to know what else I had written. I directed the reader to my website, on which I list all my books, synopses, excerpts, and links for purchase. The reader wrote back and thanked me for the info. So if you’re a reader and you read a book by an author you really like, what do you do to find more info about that author? I guess I assumed that the first thing you would do is conduct a websearch and check out the author’s website. But maybe that’s not a given.

So what kinds of info are you looking for when you find an author you’re interested in?

Thanks for playing, and hope all is well and that you have a great weekend.

peace!

Okay, so as some of you might know, I and my colleague-in-crime R. G. Emanuelle are working feverishly with Bedazzled Ink Publishing to put the finishing touches on the anthology we co-edited called Skulls and Crossbones: Tales of Woman Pirates. We’re hoping it’ll be available for public consumption in the next couple of weeks or so. We’re both pretty stoked about this, because we tried to bring in a variety of themes, settings, eras, and writers. We ended up with a collection that ranges from the dark n’ gritty to the light and fluffy. Sly humor, macabre twists, things that make you go hmmm…it’s here. Click here to see a list of authors.

Okay, so that’s cool enough, I think. But R. G. and I came across someone on Facebook who does an interesting twist on book promotion. That’s candle artist JFay, and I’m not entirely sure how she found me, but she did, so I went and checked out her sites and immediately called R. G.

You see, JFay not only makes awesome candles in general, but she came up with an interesting twist to book promotion. That is, authors can hire her to design a candle that accompanies a book. In other words, you as an author contact her and provide an image of your book cover and give her some info about the book–a summary, themes, genre. That kind of thing. From that, she works with you to come up with a concept for a candle in honor of that book, including a scent. So R. G. and I did all that, and JFay is at work right now on a candle that she’ll promote on her sites in conjunction with Skulls and Crossbones. We even came up with a “signature scent” that other people can use for other candles, if they want.

Keep in mind that JFay does all kinds of candles, all day every day. This candle-as-book-promotion thing is something she does, too, and you can see what that’s about on her site Wick’d Reads. (Get it? “Wick”? Candle? Wicked? I thought that was cool) Okay, so JFay’s candle studio site is located here, at Studio 3B. You can contract with her to develop a custom candle for whatever occasions, but this idea of pairing a candle that evokes a book/book cover, I thought, was kinda neat. Authors are quintessential publicity whores, if you will, and we’re always looking for new and different ways to get people to buy our stuff! BUY! NOW! CLICK HERE! LOOK! A BOOK! READ IT! See what I mean?

Anyway, I’m a candle fan, so this worked out all around. I like pirates, I like candles, I like books. JFay combines all three in this project, and her candles are the BOMB. Most likely, the Skulls and Crossbones candle will also be available for sale on her site, with that signature scent, “Walk the Plank” (it’s got sandalwood in it, plus some other cool spices. . .YUM).

So for you candle fans out there, JFay is an artist whose medium is wax. Check her sites out and see what you think. Because hey, who doesn’t like a candle every now and again? Great for gifts, great for relaxing by yourself while you’re HINT reading a book, great for setting a mood. And for you authors, here’s a different way to promote your stuff, but you get something, too. An awesome candle. You cannot go wrong with a candle. (except if you leave it burning when you leave the house–that is not a good plan)

Happy weekend and light ‘em if you’ve got ‘em!