My Favorite Room (And news about Espressologist the web series and a book sale at the bottom!)

Hey Author2Author readers!

I've been MIA for quite awhile. It seems I can't to do too many things at once. We moved in mid-April and the process of getting all of the stuff for 6 people packed and moved was enormous for me! I barely got any writing done. Ok, I didn't write at all during that process. But we're all moved in and I'm getting back to work now. I've been working on the first book in a middle grade series, making notes on a new middle grade book that I'm super excited about, and starting edits on a young adult book. And of course enjoying summer with the kids.

I wanted to share my favorite room in our new house: the library. I've always wanted a library! And this one comes with a coffee bar so I'm hooked (ok, they used it as a library/wine room, but you know me: coffee, coffee, coffee!). Anyway, it's a little room right off of the family room and the kids (and me) love to go in here to read. Here are some pics.

 (looking in)

 (the coffee bar)

(cute window to sit by)

(kids fave place to read)

(up close of the books. Still a work in progress as I keep finding boxes of books in the house)

In other updates, in May Alloy Digital announced the web series, Espressologist, at Digital Content Newsfronts, which was SO cool!. You can read about that here. They included some new details about the script:

"Based on the popular book by Kristina Springer, The Espressologist mixes one part Central Perk from Friends with a splash of Jane Austin’s Emma to create a series brimming with humor and heart.

Working at her neighborhood coffee shop as a barista, twenty-something Chelsea has a front-row seat to people and their crazy, entertaining lives. Always an astute observer of human nature, Chelsea stumbles upon a methodology that makes a love connection between her customers’ personalities and their drink orders. This comedic series follows Chelsea as the stakes are raised and her bizarre dating formula leads to more people (namely friends and co-workers) looking for Chelsea to replicate her success. But will she ever make a match for herself?"

So excited to see the book come to life!

There is also some great sales on my books this week. On Amazon, the paperback of The Espressologist is only $3.60. Just Your Average Princess in hard cover is $6.40. And The Paparazzi Project is on sale for 99 cents at B&N and Amazon.

Thanks for reading all the way through this lengthy post. More soon from me, I promise!

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Merry Christmas!

Tip of the Day: Katie Klein is giving away a copy of The Paparazzi Project on her blog. Go here to enter!

The Paparazzi Project is out and available on Amazon for $3.99! Makes a great addition on those Kindle Fires you're getting from Santa. ;-)

And stop by my blog to enter to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate and a copy of all four of my books plus swag!

Even Santa gets followed by the Paparazzi. Merry Christmas!

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Contest Crazy! Tips & Tricks

Tip of the Day: Enter my contests! :-) Links below.

I'm having a contest crazy week with three contests! I thought I'd tell you a little about each one so you can see if contests are something you'd like to do in the future for promoting your books.

My first one is at Free Book Friday. Every Friday they give out books donated by the author. This week I donated three signed copies of The Espressologist and answered interview questions. They also have pages for fiction, non-fiction, and indie books as well so this is a great option no matter what type of books you are publishing. My verdict on this type of contest? DO IT. This is my third time on FreeBookFriday and it's been the best. I can see visible results from their efforts. For one, my twitter followers took a huge jump. Last time I checked I was up by 125 followers this week. And looking at their rafflecopter, there are 6,424 entries with 14 hours to go. Pretty awesome. Definitely worth it.

My second contest is for The Paparazzi Project cover reveal. Here's the cover again:

I love it! :-) For my contest I'm giving away an eARC, swag, and a $25 Amazon gift certificate. This contest is running for a week and so far has 270 entries. Which is pretty awesome for my blog! I don't have as high as traffic as a place like Free Book Friday (which is why it's great to run contests on sites with good traffic!) but you may remember me talking about some of my earlier giveaways where I'd have only 5 entries. This one is going MUCH better. :-)

My third contest starts at midnight tonight. I joined another blog hop. Do you remember how much I loved the last one? Well, this one is a Jane Austin inspired blog hop so if you love books that are Jane Austin inspired, you'll want to check this one out. 79 blogs will be giving away books from 10/19-10/24.

Things I'd suggest you definitely do with your contests? Use rafflecopter. It is really great at keeping track of everything and super easy for your contestants to use. Give something everyone would like if you can (like an Amazon gift certificate). And have people tweet for you as an entry. The more people tweeting for you the better the word gets out. For example, I have people tweeting this as an entry into my cover reveal contest:

THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT Cover Reveal! $25 #Amazon GC, eARC, & swag! @TinaSpringer #giveaway #YALit #YA #mywana #ebookhttp://kristinaspringer.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-paparazzi-project-cover-reveal.html …

Hashtags are your friends. Don't forget to include them too. :-) And I have to add, that everything I'm learning comes from the brilliant Megg Jensen. She's a marketing machine. :-)

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Oh the Horror! (or YA Books Not For Halloween Weenies)

Tip of the Day: Did you see Tina's cover reveal from Monday? No?!? Go check it out and then link to her personal blog for a chance to WIN STUFF!!!

Last week I mentioned five recent middle grade novels that are great reads for the creeptastic month of October. As promised, here are five young adult titles that you must check out if you like to have your mind rattled!

1. ASHES and SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick. Teens are turned into flesh-eating monsters after an EMP rocks the planet. The first book came out last year, the second just this month, both are action-packed, gory, and startling.

2. THE RAFT by S. A. Bodeen. A plane crash, a raft rescue, an island marooning, and dead bodies grace this novel that makes you hope to never be floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

3. EREBOS by Ursula Poznanski. The creepy overlord character watches the players of Erebos and makes them do real world tasks that may result in death. While at first I was sure this book would be paranormal, it was actually more normal normal, which made it even creepier. A unique, foreign addition to scary YA.

4. THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers. An zombie-esque tale about teens trapped in their high school while outside are the living and the undead. What makes this novel stand out are the personal demons each character also faces.

5. THE UNQUIET by Jeannine Garsee. Is Rinn's school haunted by a girl who drowned in the swimming pool, or does she simply need to go back on her bipolar meds? Either way, Rinn is scared and should be.

Which ones have I missed? There have been so many great new releases this month too and I just can't keep up!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Ta-Da! Cover Reveal!

Tip of the Day: Follow Free Book Friday? They give away books every Friday. Kristina Springer's THE ESPRESSOLOGIST is up for grabs this week. http://teens.freebookfriday.com/ Keep reading my post for more ways to win Kristina's books!

Today is the cover reveal day for Kristina's new novel, THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT. This sounds like a modern blend of romance and humor. First take a look at the eye-popping cover.

And here's the contest...

Kristina's running a cover reveal contest at her blog. Hop on over to http://kristinaspringer.blogspot.com/ and you'll be eligible to win an Amazon gift card, ebook ARCs, and swag, swag, swag. 

And here's the blurb...

THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT

Livvie Peterson thought taking Interpersonal Communications her junior year would be an easy A. But when the first assignment is given, her world flips upside down.  Here’s the deal: the class is assigned a six-week project and is split into three groups— Paparazzi, Tabloid, and Celebrities. The Paparazzi follow around the Celebrities taking pictures and grabbing any kind of quotes they can. The Celebrities try to navigate being tailed on a daily basis. And the Tabloid receives all the information collected by the Paparazzi and decides what makes the weekly summary report. Sounds harmless…and it’s all just pretend anyway, right?

Livvie is assigned as Paparazzi and when she is matched up with the über-cute Chas Montgomery as her Tabloid boss she’s pretty sure things couldn’t get much better. Livvie’s uncanny ability to capture the Celebrities in compromising photos matched with Chas’s skill of exaggerating captions and editing the photos make them an unstoppable team. And the long hours working side by side with Chas aren’t a bad bonus.

Livvie simultaneously launches an anonymous blog, leaking the class’ photos and stories on the Internet. Her rising follower number quickly becomes addicting and she possibly spills too much information online. Once she finds her own celebrity will she be able to give it back? And will Chas be gone before she ever has the chance to find out?

*available in kindle format on December 15th.*

Congratulations, Kristina! Happy Cover Reveal Day.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

If It's on Wikepedia then...

Tip of the Day: Add my forthcoming book, THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT to your "to-read" list on Goodreads.

It must exist! Ok, something rather cool popped up on Wikepedia this week. An entry for New-Adult Fiction. Maybe you've heard the term tossed around between your cool author friends and wondered what the heck is New-Adult? I know I did the first time I heard it. According to Wikipedia:

"New-adult Fiction or post-adolescent literature is a recent category of fiction for young adults first proposed by St. Martin's Press in 2009.^[1] St. Martin’s Press editors wanted to address the coming-of-age that also happens in a young person’s twenties. They wanted to consider stories about young adults who were legally adults, but who were still finding their way in building a life and figuring out what it means to be an adult.^[2]"

I remember a time, not terribly long ago (about 2006), when I was querying agents with a book about a college freshman and was told several times that no one would ever buy a book with a main character of that age. That I either had to jack up the ages of my characters and make it an adult book or lower the ages and make it a young adult. I'll tell you that I made the characters younger and went along with what I was being told. But I often wondered, why don't people want to read about characters in college? What do the readers who feel young adult books are too young for them (and I don't know what age this happens at as I've yet to reach it myself) and don't want to read adult books read?

And finally there is a genre! New Adult is getting increasingly popular with stand-out self pubbers like Jessica Park and Jamie McGuire.

  

And you may have noticed that traditional publishers have taken notice of these NA self-pubbers and are snapping up their books left and right.  

And finally Wikepedia has given the genre their own entry!

What do you guys think about New-Adult Fiction? Would you read it? Would you give writing it a try?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action