Reading Beyond Our "Comfort Zone" - Kara Isaac

As a contemporary romance writer, I read (and buy!) a lot of inspirational contemporary romance. Firstly, because I love it and want to support other authors in my genre and secondly because it's important for me to be knowledgable about my fellow authors' latest releases.

Unfortunately, between chasing a young family, working on my own projects and keeping up-to-date with the stories being released in contemporary romance, there isn't really any time left to explore unfamiliar genres.

However this summer, with the arrival of a new addition, I took a break from my own projects and decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out the grass on the other side of a couple of fences! So I picked up Intermission by Serena Chase, a young adult story that I'd seen a few blogger friends raving about and Unblemished by Sara Ella, a young adult dystopian that I'd heard good things of.

I was so glad I did!

To be honest, I tend to avoid YA because I often find the main characters too self absorbed and self indulgent for my liking. However, I adored Intermission. So much so that I ran a giveaway for a copy to my newsletter subscribers. It was funny, poignant, charming and so well written. It was the first book I've read by Serena Chase but it definitely won't be my last.

While I haven't finished Unblemished yet (the "alternate worlds" aspect combined with a large cast of characters mean I need to be very awake to keep track of what's going on which doesn't happen too often with a new baby!) I am also really enjoying it.

When was the last time you ventured beyond your reading "comfort zone"? What books have you discovered on the other side of the fence that you loved?

Kara Isaac is the romantic comedy author of Close To You and Can't Help Falling and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. When she's not chasing around two little people or trying to convince the third to nap (documentary evidence to the left to prove she was successful once!), she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac

Three Things Readers May Not Know About Being An Author - Kara Isaac

It has been just over six months since my debut novel, Close To You, released and a month since my sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, came out. While this (in no way!) makes me a publishing veteran, I thought I'd blog today on some of the assumptions that some of my friends/family/readers have made about having a couple of books out there in the big wide world (and that I myself had before this new adventure!).

**I should note that the below are only for authors published by traditional publishing houses. Some of the below are very different for independently published authors.**

Before we continue, I should start by saying this is not a whinge. I love being an author, I love working with an amazing publishing team, I love interacting with readers and being able to give away books and all the other unexpected amazing things that come with this adventure. These are just a few things that people have been surprised by when I've told them that I thought may be of interest to others :)

We have no say (or control!) over price
Every now and then I'll get a message from a reader wanting to know when my book/s are going to be on sale for $1.99 (or better yet, free!) or someone will ask me why it is X price at one retailer but Y price at another.

Honestly, honestly, honestly, we have no say over what our publisher charges for a book, or what the distributor then charges for a book, or what a then retailer charges for a book. I've seen the paperback version for Close To You priced by retailers from $19.07 (NZD) up to $36.00 (NZD) and everything in between and I have no intelligence as to why any are priced the way they are!

We also have no say as to whether a title goes or e-Book sale, when it goes on sale or what the price is. Simon & Schuster put the Close To You eBook on sale for $1.99 the week before Can't Help Falling came out. Which I was absolutely thrilled about because one of the best ways to have new readers take a chance on you in the current environment is by offering it at the big discount. But I wasn't part of that decision, I was told about it after it was made and then used all of the channels I had available to me to try and spread the word.

Good reviews in publications do not necessarily equal good sales
With Close To You I was fortunate enough to receive a favourable review in a magazine in the US that had a circulation of over two million people (TWO MILLION PEOPLE! I thought I'd hit the author jackpot!). With Can't Help Falling I was blessed that it was named an October Top Pick by RT Book Reviews. Both were huge honours but I've also heard comments from people assuming that they resulted in books selling like crazy and so whether they bought it or not wasn't going to make any difference because I was already riding high on great sales numbers.

As much I would love this to be true (oh, so much so!), turns out it doesn't work that way. That magazine with the two million distribution? When I compared sales in the four weeks before the magazine came out and the four weeks after, the weeks after saw a sales increase of 28 books. Total. The day you see an author on the New York Times Bestsellers list or read that they signed a six or seven figure deal on their next contract is the day you can assume they're all good. Before that, I promise you every sale does count :)

We don't have access to limitless number of author copies to give away
My contract gives me fifty author copies for free, to be primarily used for promotional purposes. Of those five I held back for family (parents, grandmother, mother-in-law, sister and, strangely enough, one for my own bookshelf!). Another five went to friends who had saved my bacon somewhere in the writing process - either by being early readers, helping create promotional material, babysitting my kids so I could write etc. The other forty? Almost all are committed to giveaways before the book was even released via GoodReads, Facebook, guest blog posts or interviews, promotional giveaways with other authors etc.

Once those are gone, I have to buy them. While I could access them at a steep discount from my publisher, because I live in New Zealand by the time I also cover the cost of shipping them from the US plus the taxes that I incur importing them it actually ends up cheaper for me to buy my own book from a place that offers free shipping like BookDepository.com at their full retail price and have it dispatched from there. I'm 99% sure I'm their best customer for my own books :)

What about you? Were any of these things a surprise? Any other questions you'd like to ask me about life as a traditionally published author? There is the winner's choice of a copy of Close To You or Can't Help Falling for one commenter (please leave an email address if you would like to be in the draw so I can contact you if you win!). Entries close midnight, Sunday 20 November (US CST).

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. Her sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, is about about how an antique shop, a wardrobe, and a mysterious tea cup bring two C.S. Lewis fans together in a snowy and picturesque Oxford, England. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac   

Book Review - Can't Help Falling by Kara Isaac

A funny, heartfelt romance about how an antique shop, a wardrobe, and a mysterious tea cup bring two C.S. Lewis fans together in a snowy and picturesque Oxford, England.

Emelia Mason has spent her career finding the dirt on the rich and famous. But deep down past this fearless tabloid-reporter façade, there’s a nerdy Narnia-obsessed girl who still can’t resist climbing into wardrobes to check for the magical land on the other side. When a story she writes produces tragic results, she flees to Oxford, England—home to C.S. Lewis—to try and make amends for the damage she has caused.

Peter Carlisle was on his way to become one of Great Britain’s best rowers—until he injured his shoulder and lost his chance at glory. He’s determined to fight his way back to the top even if it means risking permanent disability to do so. It’s the only way he can find his way past failing the one person who never stopped believing in his Olympic dream.

When Peter and Emelia cross paths on her first night in Oxford, the attraction is instant and they find common ground in their shared love of Narnia. But can the lessons from a fantasyland be enough to hold them together when secrets of the real world threaten to tear them apart? Cobblestone streets, an aristocratic estate, and an antique shop with curious a wardrobe bring the world of Narnia to life in Kara Isaac’s inspiring and romantic story about second chances.

Kara Isaac's second novel Can't Help Falling is better than her first! A delightfully intriguing story that played out slowly giving me a 'have to finish it tonight' evening last week.

I had initially stayed away from Isaac's first book- Close to You as I had heard about the Tolkien flavour and I'm really not a fan, but when I was gifted a copy of Can't Help Falling from Kara herself, randomly through signing up for her newsletter, I thought that I'd had better read both in order, so I bought her first. I'm so glad that I did!  

Can't Help Falling is everything to Lewis and Narnia as Close to You was to Tolkien. I particularly loved the quotes throughout with even a Screwtape Letters nod.

I would have listed my favourite quote but it's so beautifully delivered in just the right place that I'd love for you to read it for yourself and decide if you love it too.

As we know, the path to Faith for anyone, can be clear or as muddy as the Yarra river (the river through Melbourne that is notoriously muddy) and Issac has delivered this with an authoritatively realistic author voice in often raw emotive scenes while adding punches of fun throughout.

It was clearly a romance but with all the skips, trips and falls of life making for a realistic read.  

I gave Close to You 5 stars on GoodReads and I'm about to do the same for Can't Help Falling.

Can't Help Falling was published by Howard Books and released in October 2016.

Kathy Smail is a Social Media, Marketing, Business & HR Consultant who loves words and is working on a novel, when she isn’t reading! She can be found chatting at…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KathySmailSocialMarketingBusiness/
Twitter: @KathySmail
Website: www.kjs.com.au

Online Book Advertising - Does It Even Work? + Giveaway!!

Last week I had a surreal moment. I was working away, clearing emails, when I happened to glance to the sidebar on the right hand side of my screen and saw my own soon-to-be-released book, Can't Help Falling, being advertised to me. I laughed about it, mentally congratulated whatever robot it was operating in cyber space on picking up from an inbox filled with emails about this very book that I might be interested in it, and moved on.

A few days later, an email landed from my agent talking about marketing Can't Help Falling. You need to think about spending some of your marketing budget buying online advertisements read one of his recommendations.

Really? I thought. Does anyone even pay attention to those? I mean sure, I've paid for the occasional Facebook post from my author page to be boosted if I'm doing a giveaway or I have something that I wanted all of my page followers to know about but real advertisements? The kind that pop up on websites and irritate people rotating on the side of their screen? I know nothing about this world, least of all how to know that I'm not throwing my limited marketing budget straight down the virtual toilet.

So, since I thought I'd turn to the great minds here. For those of you who are writers - have you ever used online advertising for any of your books? What worked and what didn't? Readers? Do you ever pay attention to online book advertising and if so, in what context? What do you like and what do you hate? (for example Facebook ads, Twitter promoted posts, advertisements on GoodReads, random ones just showing up on websites you happen to be visiting etc.)

One commenter will win a copy of their choice of my debut novel, Close To You, or my upcoming release, Can't Help Falling :)

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. Her sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, is about about how an antique shop, a wardrobe, and a mysterious tea cup bring two C.S. Lewis fans together in a snowy and picturesque Oxford, England. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac

What's the Deal with Book Pre-Orders? Part Two by Kara Isaac

A few weeks ago in Part One of What's the Deal With Book Pre-Orders I blogged about the first two reasons why pro-orders are important for an author - how they tell a publisher there is marketplace interest in the book and they tell retailers there is consumer interest in the book.

Today I thought I'd finish up with a couple of other reasons why they can be important if the first two didn't convince you :)

Pre-orders can influence whether an author receives another contract

These days in traditional publishing, the authors luxuriating in the security of a ten book deal are few and far between. Many authors have two or three book contracts. Because of the lead in time required to publish a book (anywhere from 12-24 months from the time a manuscript is turned in), for a two book contract publishers will often need to make a decision about whether to offer another contract before the second book has even been released in order to maintain the regularity of an author's release schedule. If the first book has exceeded expectations, the authors prospects are good. However, if the first book isn't on track to meet expectations then the level of interest in the second book can be a contributing factor to the decision.

I'm an author who's an example of this. I've signed a two-book contract with my publisher. Originally, the titles were going to be released 12 months apart but late last year the second book, Can't Help Falling, was brought forward so that it releases six months after my debut novel, Close To You. This is a great thing for the books because it is much easier to maintain momentum over six months than over twelve and the two stories are linked by some recurring characters (but also written to standalone). The downside is it means that there is a shorter period of time for my publisher to make the assessments they'll need to make about whether to offer me another contract if they want the option of having me release a book in 2017 given the lead time required so the first few months of sales of Close To You and pre-orders of Can't Help Falling will be a big part of what helps them to decide.

Pre-orders can catapult a book onto the bestseller lists

Have you ever noticed a book that unexpectedly leapt onto the bestseller lists its first week of sale? That's a book that has benefitted from a strong pre-order campaign. All pre-orders, regardless of when they are placed prior to the day of release, count towards a book's first week sale total. The hope is that, by having an extremely strong showing the first week, it will generate interest in the book and build momentum, keeping the book on the bestseller lists.

In my last blog post I mentioned a friend who had a novella that was part of traditionally published collection that released in March and how those authors fans made such strong pre-orders that Amazon ran out of "stock" before the title had even released. Last week the bestseller lists for March were published. The Cowboy's Bride Collection had places in the Top 10 of both the Publishers' Weekly religion list and the ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publisher's Association) bestsellers list for the month. A rare feat for a novella collection when new collections are released every month by the publishers that specialise in them. And now all of those authors get to add the title "bestselling author" to their resume!

So there you have it. My big four reasons on why, if you're of a mind (and budget!) too, you should support all your favourite authors by pre-ordering their next book :) (and a big thank you to all of you out there who have pre-ordered mine!!)

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. It will release next week (argh!) from Howard Books. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. You can sign up for her newsletter on her website or connect with her on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer 

Since you made it this far she should mention that if you pre-order Close To You by April 26 (at all the usual retailers including Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble and christianbook.com) you can go in the draw to win 1 of 15 advance copies of Can't Help Falling. See http://www.karaisaac.com/news/ for details :)