Author Spotlight: Dale Mayer

Dale Mayer is a prolific author, creating twenty-nine new titles in 2017 alone, with over 150 ebook offerings at Amazon. Her books cover various genres. My particular favorites are her Psychic Visions series and her Broken Protocols series (set in the future) and her Broken but ... Mending series (a raw emotional read). Of course I adore any of her SEALs series. She has four: SEALs of Honor,  Heroes for Hire (former SEALs), Sleeper SEALs and her newest, SEALs of Steel.

Her Design trilogy and her Biker trilogy and her Time Thieves novel are on my Read Next list.

Dale Mayer's vampire series and her paranormal fantasy series I have yet to read. (So many books, so little time.) Plus she has various romance collections where you can read her contribution among many other authors. The paranormal fantasy romance anthology looks tempting too, entitled Ancient Blood of the Vampire & Wolf.

And there's more. Check out the witch anthology, entitled Every Witch Way but Wicked. And the Darlings of Urban Fantasy collection. There are several fantasy collections, BTW. See also the Vampires, Werewolves & Zombies collection too.

Here's the link to her Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Dale-Mayer/e/B001JPADOI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1519314662&sr=1-1

This list of her books below is incomplete, as it doesn't show any of her four SEALs series, but it's enough to whet your appetite:



Books by Dale Mayer

Psychic Vision Series
Tuesday's Child
Hide'n Go Seek 
Maddy's Floor
Garden of Sorrow
Knock, Knock...
Rare Find 
Eyes to the Soul
Now You See Her ...
Shattered
Into the Abyss
Seeds of Malice
Eye of the Falcon
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Preorder for July 24, 2018 release

By Death Series
Touched by Death - Part 1 - Free
Touched by Death - Part 2
Touched by Death - Full book
Haunted by Death
Chilled by Death

Second Chances...at Love Series
Second Chances - Part 1
Second Chances - Part 2
Second Chances - Full book

Novellas
It's a Dog's Life- romantic comedy

Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy
Broken Protocols #1
Broken Protocols #2
Broken Protocols #3
Broken Protocols #3.5

New adult/adult crossover books 
In Cassie's Corner
Gem Stone (a Gemma Stone mystery)

Design Series
Dangerous Designs 
Deadly Designs 
Darkest Designs

Family Blood Ties Series
Vampire in Denial
Vampire in Distress 
Vampire in Design
Vampire in Deceit
Vampire in Defiance

Enjoy!

Denise Barker

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Jodi Taylor's Just One Damned Thing after Another

This is Book One of her series entitled The Chronicles of St. Mary's. It's simply wonderful. This UK author has a wicked sense of humor and obviously a love of ancient world history. As an American, just reading her British idioms transports me to another place, while the main character, Alex, takes me to some more. Love her and the other creative rule-breakers who work for St. Mary's. Except for the bad guys of course.

If you like your sci-fi/fantasy/time travel stories with comedy, tragedy, adventure, romance and a smattering of history lessons, this one's got it all. Even work intrigue. I read it in one sitting. What fun! There are seven books in the series, counting this first one plus the one due out May 5, 2016, which you can preorder now on Amazon.

Can't wait to read the rest of them. Enjoy! 

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

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What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Writing Prompt

As a group, we authors are a unique bunch. I have no fear in sharing my latest book idea with my critique partners as it would never be the same in the hands of these creative types. Mine would remain fingerprinted as my own just as each of theirs would be indelibly thus identified.

So, from my brainstorming stash of various words and ideas that stir my imagination, here's just three to churn up a new tale at best or an enjoyable exercise at worst. Have fun with this, people. Whether you like to mind map on teal legal pad pages with glittery crayons or via a computer, or prefer verbal sessions with your writing buddies, or need to stare out the window into your backyard as the tumblers fall into place, get started.

Take this trio and use it to generate a flash fiction story of ~250 WC (about one double-spaced page) using all the necessary plot points to carry you through the three-act process.

• Play "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" by Robbie Robertson or "Bright Lights" by Gary Clark Jr. or your choice of music to set the proper mood for that elusive piece that is still floating around in your subconscious but wanting to become physical, tangible, evident in print. Or, if you are more visually oriented, check out Pinterest for destinations or homes or famous people or whatever you desire. Don't get lost over there. Remember to come back here. Ha!
• Make a list of your top ten button-pushing issues, like: bullies, manipulators, people who abuse power, uninvited solicitors who bother you while you are trying to work from home, people who refuse to listen to you or don't respect you and your decisions. Choose the one that fires you up the most, which should give you plenty to say.
• For this particular project, pick one word from these offerings: toady, nimiety, sozzled, yarborough, oeillade (or one of your own choosing, but make it seemingly unrelated to either of the above).

Now prepare to stretch that gray matter. Set your timer for fifteen minutes and create a composition with valid motivation of (un)likable characters. Continue nonstop, even if you have to write How can I make this work? until something jars you out of your stupor. If you are fast enough, reveal it one way and then the second time go in an opposite direction, as in the good girl and bad girl viewpoints.

And to reiterate my opening paragraph of this post, as many people as do this homework assignment, there are as many variations of same. My fantasy CP will no doubt create a work of wonder, while my shockingly strange-yet-funny horror-writing CP will twist hers into something surprising. Mine will have a happy ending with the good guys winning as justice and fair play prevail in the end.

If this first draft works for you, use it as an outline for a longer book. If not, add this attempt to your scrap paper box.

Now get ready to do one of your own. Pick your three personalized writing prompts. Go!

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

What Is the Basic Word Count for Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novelette, Novella, Novel, Saga?

I've been working on my Short Story Collection #2 and, by some definitions, these three "short stories" are each long enough to warrant the novelette designation.

But it depends on which source you check. I went to my two mainstays, 16CMS and Web11, and neither provided me with word counts per category. And you'll find variations when searching the Internet or while checking submission instructions online.

If you are going the traditional publishing route, by all means go by prescribed guidelines for the line best suited for your work within that house. For instance, a quick search finds at least twenty-one imprints under the Simon & Schuster publishing umbrella.

However, if you are going the Indie route, then research the offerings out there and pick your own standard to go by. After reading several sites, I compiled what I thought was the best of the best with my gut as the official tiebreaker, when needed. Here's my working theory to date:

3–1,000 WC = Flash Fiction	~4 pp. "He died alone" tells a story, brings forth emotions, has the reader asking questions; so must have ≥3WC to start a tale.
1,001–7,500 WC = Short Story	~4–30 pp.
7,501–20,000 WC = Novelette	~30–80 pp.
20,001–40,000 WC = Novella	~80–160 pp. MG readers
40,001–60,000 WC = Novels, category	~160–240 pp. Genres like romance, western, etc.
60,001–90,000 WC = Novels, singles	~240–360 pp. YA, paranormal, fantasy/sci-fi, etc.
90,001–150,000 WC = Novels, mainstream	~360–600 pp. Thriller/horror, mystery, crime fiction
150,001+ WC = Sagas	~600+ pp. Michener's Hawaii, Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Mitchell's Gone with the Wind

As I mentioned above, this is my current working theory, subject to revisions as I refine it. But it works for me. And there are always exceptions, so we can agree upon that.

Oh, and I estimated page counts based on 250 words/page.

One thing to always remember when e-publishing anything other than a novel/saga, be sure to clearly mark same on your cover, in your online description, in your title even. Not all people check the page-length info given on amazon.com and other venues. So readers get understandably upset when purchasing what they think is a full-length novel and getting shortchanged with only fifty pages' worth. Better for them to purchase what they think is a midsize novel of three hundred pages and get one of five hundred pages instead.


LEGEND:
16CMS = The Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth Edition
Web11 = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
WC = word count
MG = middle grade
YA = young adult

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

What Do Readers Choose to Read?

This is a related post from the one earlier today.  Something within that first blog stirred my need to know.  So I did more unscheduled research and came up with the following interesting info.  My apologies for any errors or math miscalculations.  Believe me, they were not intended.  However, with that caveat, here we go.

As authors we should consider this:  What are our potential readers reading?  What genres do these Kindle Million Club authors encompass?  Does offering a huge selection of books to the public help generate these one million books sold?  

Restricting this discussion to the Kindle Million Club authors, here is a thumbnail overview:

Line No.	Kindle Million Club Author	Novels Published to Date*	Genre
1.	D. Baldacci	22	Thriller**, Children's
2.	A. Hocking	9	YA Paranormal
3.	S. Meyer	8	YA Vampire Romance
4.	S. Larsson	3	Thriller
5.	J. Patterson	48	Thriller
6.	Nora Roberts	209	Romance
7.	Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb	42	Thriller
8.	C. Harris	12	Vampire Thriller
9.	Lee Child	16	Thriller
10.	S. Collins	8	Children’s, Sci-Fi
11.	M. Connelly	25	Thriller
12.	John Locke	12	Humorous Thriller
13.	K. Stockett	1	Historical
14.	J. Evanovich	45***	Humorous Thriller, Humorous Romance
15.	G. R.R. Martin	14	Fantasy, Sci-Fi

* -  no short stories or anthologies counted (at least not on purpose)

** - "Thriller" includes mysteries and police procedurals

*** - some of Janet Evanovich's novels counted here were co-authored

NOTE:  The children's genre is skewed as I was ignoring it at first, like I did the short stories and the anthologies--based on the fact they are probably not novel-length books, may not be necessarily offered via Amazon (such as articles, another category I overlooked, would most likely be published in magazines, periodicals, etc.) plus any anthology purchase could be deemed due to another contributor's name on the cover.  Hence, not part of why these authors made Amazon's Kindle Million Club.   However, it shows up for Collins as her bibliography has more books in that genre.  I plan to update this category with more research later (hopefully not today as I am already so off track--ha!).  At that time, I'll add the appropriate entries where needed and a confirming postscript at the end of this entry.

The million-sales-generating genres include crossovers so here's that tally per the authors referenced above, starting with the most desired/bought and working down to the other favorites:

     9 Thrillers/Mysteries/Police Procedurals, including the two mixed genres noted below

     3 Romance, including the two mixed genres noted below  /
3 Humorous, including the two mixed genres noted below

     2 Young Adults  /  2 Science Fiction  /  2 Humorous Thrillers  /  2 Children's

     1 Paranormal Romance   / 1 Historical  /  1 Fantasy / 1 Vampire Thriller  / 1 Humorous Romance

Remember, these numbers here indicate genres shared among these Kindle Million Club authors, not the number of books written.  If I have the genres wrong, then my math here is inherently erroneous, so take that into account.

Obviously Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb has the greatest number of books written to date among this selection of novelists.  Even adding together all the other authors' publications from the chart above, I come up with roughly 223 novels compared to 251 just by Nora.  That is incredible.  As author Nora Roberts, she has written 209 romance books.  Under the J.D. Robb pen name for her In Death murder series, she's created another 42.

Still, you have a debut author making this list with her lone contribution (K. Stockett).

So just because you aren't as prolific as Nora or have a humongous backlist to convert to e-book format, you can still accomplish great things with one individual story.

The other single-digit-book-producing authors here have trilogies--or a quadrilogy--going for them (Hocking, Meyer, Larsson, Collins).

The beginning of the double-digit producers (covering 11-19 books) seem to be replete with authors doing a longer series.  Look at Harris with her book/TV series, Child's Reacher series, then Locke's two series with his start on a third, ending with Martin who has one series among his other standalone books.

For authors offering twenty-something books to choose from, we have the series theme popping up again, with Baldacci's four (counting the children's series) and Connolly's three.

Nobody considered here has thirty-ish books published.  They either have less or more.  So we jump into the forty-plus-books-published category:  Patterson and Evanovich.  They both have embraced the book series, too.

Also, per our Kindle Million Club author listing, you can be traditionally published or Indie-published, as Hocking and Locke attest to, and still make the cut.

To recap, here's what readers want based on my personal analysis of Kindle's Million Club authors. 

A great entertaining read, first and foremost would be my generic answer, whether (1) hundreds of books prolifically written throughout the decades (keep 'em coming) or (2) a standalone adult novel, your first even, in whatever category (every one of these extraordinary authors started with Book One).  (3) Both traditionally and Indie-published authors appear in this list.  Top-selling genres include (4) Thrillers, then (5) Romance and Humor genres.  (6)  Create a series, at least a trilogy, but longer is better.  (7)  It is okay to mix genres.  Plus, as you see fit, (8) add in these elements:  fantasy, paranormal, vampire and/or sci-fi; (9) feel free to write to these audiences: young adults and children; and (10) they want more serious reads first and lighthearted reads second.

One final point.  No matter what genre of book is selling big at the moment, no matter what genre of movie is drawing record numbers at the theaters, no matter what genre of TV show is a huge hit, write from your heart.  Write what you want.  Write what you are drawn to.  If it happens to be the current "thing," so much the better.

Just as I am compelled to do this research and these two blogs today no matter what my To Do list may dictate, sometimes you gotta go with your gut.  Trust your instincts.  If they are nudging you now, then now is the right time to do it.

Like Kathryn Stockett's "differences" stand out among the other authors within Amazon's Kindle Million Club on so many levels (it's her debut novel, it's the only historical on the list, she made her one million in sales from one single book--that's a big following), she could be deemed the anomaly.  So could one of us someday.

And that's it.

For now.

Target Audience / Reader Demographic

As a follow-up to my previous post regarding how my age does not determine what I read, I would like to further discuss the anomalies of “target audience” and “reader demographic.”  I happen to enjoy teen paranormal books/movies, and I am neither teen nor paranormal (much).  Yet if my age and human status are limiting factors, then booksellers would never realize they have a market in fifty-something females of the non-vampire, non-werewolf variety.

Anyway, I don’t believe the old writer’s adage to “write to your audience” as if only people of the same approximate age of my main characters will read that book.  My personal reading habits alone defy that model.  It is too much like "write what you know."  Which sounds logical, until you apply it to the fantasy writers out there, or the SciFi genre or the paranormal crowd.

I recently read in the Kindle Direct Publishing newsletter about the top twenty most well-read cities in America.  It’s an interesting collection of not only cities, but what was the bestselling genre sold for some of them (nonfiction, cooking, children’s books, etc.).  Now this is information an author can use.

To begin with, you could choose a city you know and love from that list of topmost-book-reading devotees and make that place a central theme to your next book, a character of its own.  Think of Tara Plantation in Gone with the Wind.  Or for a more timely example, Lisa Turner’s Memphis in A Little Death in Dixie.

Follow your genre and market heavily (local newspaper articles, TV station spots, radio ads, billboards) in those cities which devour your kind of books.  Amazon’s Author Center states “Nielsen BookScan does not aggregate sales data for Kindle or ebooks, or for books available only through third party sellers.”  HOWEVER, Amazon compiled these figures and included Kindle e-book sales.

I predict Nielsen BookScan and the like will incorporate e-books sales.  Just like Bestseller Lists will incorporate e-books.  And contests will allow e-book submissions.  All that will have to change to accommodate the jinormous elephant in the room.  Because e-books are big sellers.  

In the meantime, write what moves you.