ReviewFest and Maggie Toussaint

Thanks, Lindsay, for creatingReviewFest to share our reviews. Oftentimes on chats, forums, blogs, and loops, our reviews get mentioned once and then we file them away. I'm delighted when I get good reviews because it's such a pleasure to connect with a reader/reviewer who really gets what you are all about.

About me: I write romance and romantic mystery. My writing journey started in the romance world, but I kept adding more and more suspense elements. I transitioned to writing mysteries, but romance is ingrained in my muse, so all of my books are blends of romance and mystery.

Since this is Lindsay's "pink" romance blog, I'll sharea few of my fab romance reviews.

House of Lies launched me into the world of published authors. Hannah visits the house her estranged father bequeathed to her, and finds his business partner, ex-CIA agent Jake. Layer by layer, Hannah uncovers the secrets of her father's covert life and activates a deadly killer.

"House of Lies has it all! Great job!" - Fallen Angels Review

"I recommend this book to readers who love a novel that pulls at the heartstrings with a side order of suspenseful action." - The Romance Studio

House of Lies, Best Romantic Suspense, National Readers' Choice Awards

 ISBN 9781601540317 buy it:  www.amazon.com  www.thewildrosepress.com  Kindle

No Second Chance is my horse rescue romance. I donate the profits to a horse rescue charity in Maryland, Days End Farm Horse Rescue. In the book, Hope and Devlin battle their attraction as they dodge a killer's bullets and try to save the horse farm.

 "A fabulous contemporary romance with an intriguing social issue involving the rescue of horses" - Harriet Klausner

"A tale that will please most contemporary romance readers" Romance Reviews Today

"If you have a quiet evening to curl up with a good book and you enjoy suspense, horses, Cinderella stories or all three — this book will satisfy" - Long and Short Reviews

"A must Read" - CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

buy it: Amazon   The Wild Rose Press   Kindle (all romances also available for Nook)

Seeing Red was originally released through an ebook publisher, Freya's Bower, who did a great job of editing this story. When the rights reverted to me earlier this year, I added a bit here and there and then brought it back out in digital and trade paperback format. Emma and Quentin work to make her crumbling homestead into a Bed & Breakfast, but someone doesn't want them to succeed. Is the threat from her sisters, his family, or her work colleagues?

"An excellent read" - Night Owl Romance

"Witty, fun, and fast-paced. One of the better romances I’ve read in months" Cocktail Reviews

"A great story that you won't want to put down and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a sweet, non-graphic romance"-  Long and Short Reviews

Buy it at www.smashwords.com and Kindle also at B&N and Amazon and Sony

Muddy Waters is the first book I set on the Georgia coast. It's full of two-hundred year old live oaks and Spanish moss and secluded kayaking canals. So many readers fell in love with the town of Mossy Bog that they've been clamoring for a sequel. God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll get that into the rotation!  In Muddy Waters, Roxie and Sloan battle their attraction as they search for his lost inheritance. Will they find it before a deadly fortune hunter puts them out of commission?

"Great book, wonderful mystery and a red hot love story underlying it." - The Reading Reviewer

   

“A pleasant read for a nice fall afternoon. With its home realty and repair subplot, the author obviously knows her stuff” – Romantic Times

"Toussaint wrote the characters with a believability that captures the hearts of readers” – SingleTitles.com

Buy Muddy Waters: Kindle   Wild Rose Press and Amazon and many other online venues

My Cleopatra Jones mystery series has two published books which have had great reviews by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and more. I hope you'll visit my website http://www.maggietoussaint.com/  to read more about those mystery titles, to read free excerpts from all my work. I have a free read up at my blog, http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/ in which Cleo and her boyfriend vacation at the beach.

Thanks again, Lindsay for REVIEWFEST which gave me a chance to dust off these reviews and tell about the books I've written. You want mystery and romance? I'm your gal!

Maggie Toussaint

Are you ready to be an indie press?

by Maggie Toussaint

There's so much happening in the book industry today. Some folks say traditional houses are dying, others say there will always be print books. I'm of the opinion that there's room for all kinds of houses and all kinds of books.

Whether the book sells, in whatever format, depends on the quality of the story (most important), the cover of the book (very important), and getting the word out (must do this). Sounds like they're all important, and they are. If you decide to seek a nontraditional publishing venue, be sure to keep this in mind. When you sign with a publishing house, they have editors and cover artists and marketing advice/programs/budgets (depends on the house) and they are in essence your partners in the publication of your book.

If you decide to self-publish or indie publish, the burden falls squarely on you, the author.

Reasons to self-publish: your book doesn't fit a traditional market; you want to get something out there and get started on your publishing career; the top houses don't want it and you'd rather do it yourself than turn it over to someone else (creative control); you have a solid marketing plan and the time to put it into action.

There are more reasons, but the worst reason is that you're in a hurry. Don't do this in a hurry. A poorly edited book is worse than no book. Let me say that again. A poorly edited book is worse than no book.

If I haven't scared you off yet, let me tell you about my route to indie publishing. I have both traditional and e-press publishers. In time, books get remaindered or the rights revert to you if you request to get them back. One of my romances didn't do as well as the others and I reasoned that the house it was published through had less traffic for this kind of book than my other publisher. So, I wanted to give this story another chance.

I researched the idea among various writer groups, friends, and a very helpful mentor, Rebecca Vickory. I discovered that the process was very doable. To put out a book in digital, one uses a free program such as Smashwords and publishes through the Kindle store. Both have excellent instructions on how to do the formatting and the cover requirements.

Which brings me to cover artists. You can spend a lot of money for a cover, or a little, or even design your own. The idea is to invoke reader interest and to have the cover reflect the type of story inside. Rebecca recommended a cover artist to me, who I used, and I had both a print and digital cover made for SEEING RED, which is in the sweet romance genre. I paid right at $100 for both covers.

Since I plan to publish more of my "rights reverted" books in the future, I decided to give my new house a name, Muddle House Publishing, and created a simple website for it online through a free site like weebly. Since I'd already managed to format my own author page at blogger (http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/), using the templates at weebly came easy. Granted, my site isn't complete, but it is a start. http://www.muddlehousepublishing.com/.

I was also fortunate enough to already have my writing income roll into the LLC my husband and I created a few years ago. We added Muddle House as a new entity in our corporation, so that we had a tax ID number.

This was important for acquiring ISBNs through Bowker (http://www.bowker.com/). I bought a package of 10 ISBNs and a bar code, which was a bit of an investment, but when you look at it as a per book cost, it isn't much. Again, to get your books listed or placed in stores, you will need ISBNs. Additionally, I chose to use one ISBN for the ebook release (all formats) and another for the print release of SEEING RED.

Next came formatting. This was easy if you followed ALL the directions. You have to have patience because in reformatting, some things get uncentered or the font changes, and you have to be diligent about checking and rechecking. This takes time, or at least it did for me.

Because I had slow sales for this particular title earlier, I wanted to encourage sales with the new release. I chose a low price of $2.99 as a loss leader, hoping people would discover my writing and then buy other titles of mine. Some authors go as low as $0.99, but I wasn't ready for that price point.

I went through all the gyrations for the digital release first. Once I had that file prepped and published, I turned my attention to getting the book printed. I selected CreateSpace (http://www.createspace.com/). The quality of the books is very high, they are a professional outfit, and they came highly recommended. I was not disappointed.

For the print book, I needed a print cover, my ISBN and my formatted file. There was a slight fee to order the galley for proofing, but it was under $5 plus shipping. I ended up needing two galleys made because I fixed one problem, didn't see the other one, then realized I needed to read the whole thing again. I've found it easier to see the mistakes on paper than on screen. You may have a different editing experience.

Then I had both formats of books ready to go. It was up to me to upload SEEING RED in print format to the Amazon store. I believe that took a week or two. Then it was ready for order for stores and people across the globe.

For this book, I was lucky - it had already had extensive editing at the small epress that put it out the first time. However, my writing style had changed, and there were some parts of the book that needed updating, so I mucked with it a bit. That's where the mistakes came in during the galley phase - to changes I'd made in the text. But I'm glad I made those changes. The book is stronger, and it is more reflective of how I write.

If you are undertaking indie publishing with a book that hasn't been professionally edited, I highly recommend that you find an editor to take a comb through of it. Perhaps you have a critique partner that would swap this service with you. Don't rely on your friends, mother, or husband for this service.

Once the book was released, the marketing all fell squarely on my shoulders. That meant blogs, contests, signings, and more. That means conquering new social media and networking and continuing to spread the word.

Publishing, in any format, takes time. It takes commitment, and it takes a bit of luck. There's both an art and a science to the business. Getting that blend right can make or break you.

I invite you to check out SEEING RED. I hope when you look at the cover, you see a crumbling house, a redhead, and a handsome hunk who wants to sweep her off her feet.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this long post! The future in publishing is yours to command!

Maggie Toussaint
http://www.maggietoussaint.com/
http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/
www.muddlehousepublishing.com/