11.27.2014

"Steam Me Up, Rawley" and How to Build Your Own Author Steam!

 "Geek Girl Romance Writer" Angela Quarles
I hope she forgives my lateness. I was going to do and post this article last week for Writer Wednesday, but I ended up in the hospital for the day instead. So, here it goes- the new and quite steamy cover for "Steam Me Up, Rawley" by my critique partner this year, Angela Quarles.

Now I will be honest, Steampunk Adult Romance is not my specialty (I'm more of an action-thriller, sci-fi, urban fantasy, killer sort, with a side of heavy horsepower.) I do however, love a good story and I do love to write.  Angela, for who knows what perfectly good, sane-sounding reason, chose to be critique partners with me earlier this year at Savvy Authors.  She didn't even bat an eyelash when I said things like "Couldn't you just land the ballon in the middle of the party and start with the action first?"  Her skirts never got frumpled when I said things like "What's with the eyes, why do they keep staring at each other?"  And her brass never got tarnished when I said - "Jack the Ripper?!!!! Awesome! Bonus points if you can make the new guy, the dad, and the frien-enemy's husband (the main's ex-fiance), and her boss all suspects!"  I think she smiled quietly and sweetly, just like her picture, and stuck the occasional brass hair-pin in a southern, steampunk, voodoo doll (my hip still hurts!).





As excited as I was to help with her cover reveal, the thing that really made me want to post about it was her and her writer's packet.  She is an author "doing it right" - the promotion and exposure thing of course.  And here is the beginning of everything.  A well done book, professional cover, professional photograph, great tag line and fantastic book blurb, awards coming in, etc.  So, admire the blurb and the fantastic cover for a minute and then I'll tell you what else she's doing.  So you can prepare too!
Cover Art by Kim Killion




And Now - the Book Blurb & Cover!


Jack the Ripper might be in town. But is marriage more terrifying?


In an alternate Deep South in 1890, society reporter Adele de la Pointe wants to make her own way in the world, despite her family’s pressure to become a society wife. Hoping to ruin herself as a matrimonial prospect, she seizes the opportunity to cover the recent Jack the Ripper-style murders for the newspaper, but her father's dashing new intern suggests a more terrifying headline—marriage.

Dr. Phillip Rawley’s most daring exploit has been arriving at his new home in America in a hot air balloon. A tolerable sacrifice, if it means he can secure the hand of his new employer’s daughter in a marriage of convenience. But Adele works, she's spirited, and she has an armored pet monkey running her errands. Not only does she not match his notions of a proper lady, she stirs up feelings he’d rather keep in tight control.

With Adele hunting down a headline and Dr. Rawley trying to protect and pursue her, a serial killer is spreading panic throughout Mobile, Alabama. Can Adele and Rawley find the murderer, face their fears, and discover true love?





How to Build Your Own Author Steam!


This is where it gets to be even more fun.  Angel sent out a note asking if anyone would like to be in on the cover reveal or help her out.  You signed up for an e-mail.  I got a note back with an attached packet of info.  The packet contained the information about when you could do the reveal, info about the book, and basically a writers promo packet - I was really impressed.  It had the photo of Angela above, two pics of her book cover in different sizes (bigger and smaller), a Word document "Blog Post Items for Angela Quarles' Release"  Which included this info:



Blog Post Items for Angela Quarles’ release STEAM ME UP, RAWLEY


Book Info Steam Me Up, Rawley 

New Adult Steampunk Romance
Projected Release Date: Jan/Feb 2015
Length: Novel (95,000 words)
Ebook Price: $3.99
ISBN: 978-0-9905400-3-8
Content advisory: Adult language, explicit sex

Blurb 


Jack the Ripper might be in town. But is marriage more terrifying?

In an alternate Deep South in 1890, society reporter Adele de la Pointe wants to make her own way in the world, despite her family’s pressure to become a society wife. Hoping to ruin herself as a matrimonial prospect, she seizes the opportunity to cover the recent Jack the Ripper-style murders for the newspaper, but her father's dashing new intern suggests a more terrifying headline—marriage.

Dr. Phillip Rawley’s most daring exploit has been arriving at his new home in America in a hot air balloon. A tolerable sacrifice, if it means he can secure the hand of his new employer’s daughter in a marriage of convenience. But Adele works, she's spirited, and she has an armored pet monkey running her errands. Not only does she not match his notions of a proper lady, she stirs up feelings he’d rather keep in tight control.

With Adele hunting down a headline and Dr. Rawley trying to protect and pursue her, a serial killer is spreading panic throughout Mobile, Alabama. Can Adele and Rawley find the murderer, face their fears, and discover true love?

Bio 


Long Bio
Angela is a geek girl romance writer. What makes her romances geeky? Whether it's fan girling over Ada Lovelace by having her as a secondary character in Must Love Breeches, or outright geek references with geek types in her romantic comedy with paranormal elements, Beer and Groping in Las Vegas, or going all Southern steampunk in Steam Me Up, Rawley, she likes to have fun with her romances and hopes her readers do too.

Angela works at an independent bookstore and lives in an historic house in the beautiful and quirky town of Mobile, AL. When she's not writing, she enjoys the usual stuff like gardening, reading, hanging out, eating, drinking, chasing squirrels out of the walls and creating the occasional knitted scarf. She's had a varied career, including website programming and directing a small local history museum, and has discovered that writing allows her to explore all her interests.

She's an admitted geek and is proud to be among the few but mighty Browncoats who watched Firefly the first night it aired. She was introduced to the wonderful world of science fiction by her father, by way of watching reruns of the original Star Trek in her tweens and later giving her a copy of Walter M. Miller Jr's A Canticle for Leibowitz as a teenager. She hasn't looked back since.

She has a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies with a minor in German from Emory University, and a Masters in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She was an exchange student to Finland in high school and studied abroad in Vienna one summer in college.

Medium Bio
Angela is a geek girl romance writer. What makes her romances geeky? Whether it's fan girling over Ada Lovelace by having her as a secondary character in Must Love Breeches, or outright geek references with geek types in her romantic comedy with paranormal elements, Beer and Groping in Las Vegas, or going all Southern steampunk in Steam Me Up, Rawley, she likes to have fun with her romances and hopes her readers do too.

Angela works at an independent bookstore and lives in an historic house in the beautiful and quirky town of Mobile, AL. When she's not writing, she enjoys the usual stuff like gardening, reading, hanging out, eating, drinking, chasing squirrels out of the walls and creating the occasional knitted scarf. She's had a varied career, including website programming and directing a small local history museum, and has discovered that writing allows her to explore all her interests.

She has a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies with a minor in German from Emory University, and a Masters in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She was an exchange student to Finland in high school and studied abroad in Vienna one summer in college.

Short Bio
Angela Quarles is a geek girl romance writer whose works includes Must Love Breeches, a time travel romance, and Beer & Groping in Las Vegas, a geek romantic comedy in novelette form. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies with a minor in German from Emory University, and a Masters in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She currently resides in a historic house in the beautiful and quirky town of Mobile, AL.

Author Links 

Website: http://bit.ly/VMFK00
Blog: http://bit.ly/WkQbXG
Join my mailing list: http://bit.ly/1sde3Qi
Paranormal Unbound, the group blog I belong to: http://bit.ly/1sdaIRa
Twitter: http://bit.ly/Se5gQ0
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/VMFT3L
Pinterest: http://bit.ly/1qRhgHQ

Book Links 

Amazon: http://bit.ly/SMURAmz
Kobo: http://bit.ly/SMURKobo
iTunes: http://bit.ly/SMURApple
Nook: http://bit.ly/SMURBN
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1pcvD23
Steam Me Up, Rawley board on Pinterest: http://bit.ly/10xPdRA
Official Book Page: http://bit.ly/SMURBook


Angela had this info in a Word .doc. You might ask, "Well, why not a .pdf?" A .pdf file is great if you are concerned about giving out something like a flier that you have to have maintain it's "look" (i.e. spacing, font, colors, arrangement).  However, for the purpose of getting info out and making it accessible and easy-to-use for a blogger to grab chunks of information to post, having it in a Word .doc was the far better choice.  When you looked at it, it mostly held the "look", but is far better as a tool for getting your information out there because a vast majority of people have and use Word.  Everything was in there- info about her, the book, how to be in touch with her and how to find and reach her in just about every viable medium.  She's got an expanded version of this information on her website that includes her other books, easy tweet, tweetable blurbs, etc., in her Press Kit area. Anything that makes saring the good news as quick and easy as possible for people. Very smart and well thought out. She said the she's noted a lot of authors tend to forget about things like a press kit, but said it has worked out well for her so far.  She said that she was getting hits from bloggers, folk, and regular press people almost as soon as it was up. Easy, economical, exposure for the cost of a little time and some word-smithing.  Sound doable- if you want to be sucessful.

I know this has been a lot of information for many burned out NaNoWriMo minds. So, let it sit until next week and then look at it again when you are having NaNo withdrawl over the next week or two. Then come back and create your info pack- Angela's is a great model and starting point. You're an author - get your shit together! (Yes, this includes me too.) Next time we'll talk about all the stuff she's doing right on her author website (p.s. She's doing great with it!). And why you should be doing it too. 

If you're still too burned out, consider a hot romance novel to relax your mind.

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