A group of crazy, neurotic, absolutely hilarious erotic romance authors working together to corrupt the world... one reader at a time.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Guest Blogger: Cynthia Sax

Hey Hotties!

I'm pleased to present Cynthia Sax. Cynthia was one of the first author friends that I made starting out. Being an author is sometimes a lonely business, but when you surround yourself with good friends (and sometimes good wine) it makes the lonely go away and sometimes invites the crazy in, ahem.

Below is an open letter that I think can benefit any author, new or old...
 
I’m thrilled A.M. Griffin and the Cabal of Hotness invited me to visit them during the release week for He Watches Me! I’m on that new book high! Weee!

And I LOVE this exercise. I’ve learned quite a lot over the past four years. I wasn’t clever enough to learn from other people’s mistakes. I made most of the mistakes myself.

 
Dear Baby Cynthia Sax,

You’re not quitting. Accept this now. You’ll struggle through stacks of rejections, to-the-bone rewrites, bad sales, edits gone wrong, horrible reviews, reader vents, and you’ll think about quitting. You’ll threaten to quit. But you won’t. You can’t. This isn’t a job. This is part of who you are. So stop the moaning and groaning. Put on your big girl panties and redirect your energy into becoming the best dang writer you can be!

If you can’t sell the story with one short line, you won’t be able to sell the story to readers. You might be able to sell the story to publishers but truly, the readers are the people you should want to please. They’re the people you’re having your stories published for. Go ahead and write the story if you feel you absolutely have to write it but don’t submit this story to a publisher until you can sell it with one line.

You have a long list of story ideas. When you’re choosing the next story to write, look at this list and write the story readers are most looking for now. If vampires are hot, write your vampire stories. If billionaire heroes are hot, write those zillion billionaire stories you want to write. Don’t write anything you don’t feel passionate about writing. This will show in your writing (no secret baby stories for you!). But, as your farming granddad would say, you might as well “Make hay while the sun shines.”

Start blogging now. You know you love blogging. You’re already blogging on business sites. Don’t listen to the people who say blogging is dead. It isn’t. And if you start blogging now, in four years, you’ll have a sizable readership AND a wonderful record of your publishing journey.

This is a marathon, not a sprint so enjoy every small victory, every book release, every great review, every piece of happy reader mail. The joy never goes away.

 
Love,

Older And Not Much Wiser Cynthia Sax

 

What would you tell your younger writing self?

 

***

 

Blurb:

She desires to be seen. He wants to watch.

Anna Sampson has a naughty secret. Every night, she slips into her neighbor’s yard and swims naked in his pool. She fantasizes that the dynamic young billionaire watches her nightly nude aquatics, his brilliant green eyes gleaming with lust.

She discovers this isn’t pure fantasy. Gabriel Blaine has been watching her via his security cameras, and now that he has returned to L.A., he doesn’t plan to stop. That’s all he wants—to watch. Anna knows she shouldn’t allow him and she certainly shouldn’t want more, but she craves Blaine’s attention, needing his gaze fixed on her body.

 Part One of The Seen Trilogy


 
Author Website: http://cynthiasax.com/


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthia.sax

Twitter: @CynthiaSax

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for inviting me into the Cabal of HOTness (grins)! I love being here!

    Oh and I just checked this morning and He Watches Me is still selling for the ridiculously low price of 99 cents. Yeah, that's bonkers pricing but I kind of like it (I'm freaky that way).

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