What to Giveaway

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Is it good to giveaway a book?

Well, as a recipient of the occasional free book, I will confirm that yes, I think it’s great when authors giveaway books.  However, many authors feel extremely leery of giving away free books. There have been many instances of winners selling books or copying content, so that fear is not unfounded.

Goodreads Giveaway for Elevator RidePhilosophy

However, my philosophy is that while I can’t control the actions of others, I can be a generous person. In other words, haters gonna hate and book pirates are going to book pirate, but I can still put out the kind of energy that I would like to see in the world. Besides, if the four dollars you get from selling an advance print copy of my book is what helps you make it through the day, then take the four bucks.  Piracy of ebooks bugs me far more and is an extensive topic that I won’t get into, but in general once I hand you a print copy, you are free to read it, sell it, or pop it in a little free library.  Just don’t tell me about it.  Unless you loved it.  Then absolutely tell me all about it.  I want to hear every word.

Do you want free books?

Then sign up for Goodreads, Booksweeps, or LibraryThing.  Goodreads is now owned by Amazon, so if you’re trying to boycott or you hate them for their myriad of union busting, author scamming ways (completely understandable), then try Booksweeps or LibraryThing. All three platforms consistently gives away free books in all genres and the odds are far better than the lottery. Booksweeps works directly with authors and is a great place to find your next indie read (they’re my favorite).  Library Thing is a bit clunky, but still fun and Goodreads is also strangely clunky, but somehow has all the snarky vibes of high school and a NYT review.

Today’s Giveaway

Today I’m sharing my giveaway of the print copies of my forthcoming novel Elevator Ride.  This one available through Goodreads.  The giveaway runs through 3/16.  Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Enter the giveaway!

ENTER HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/406074-elevator-ride

About the book:

Vivian Kaye has been tasked with serving a cease-and-desist letter to Rowan Valkyrie—the most hated tenant in Seattle’s Hoskins building—but when she ambushes the seasoned security professional in the elevator, she ignites a powder keg of tempers and attraction. PREORDER NOW

Can I be a Co-Writer

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A Co-Writer Spills the Beans

image of Luckless Love, from co-writing team Bethany Maines & Juel Lugo, on a e-readerIn my upcoming release, Luckless Love, my heroine is returning from a year long road trip and searching for someplace to belong.  Wanting to belong to a community is a universal theme that I think appeals to readers, but when I started to write the book, I didn’t immediately leap to that theme.  I had to explain my reasoning for using it to my co-writer—Juel Lugo.

Luckless Love started out during COVID when Juel who is my business partner in real life and I took a script writing seminar on how to write a Hallmark movie.  We both felt that we could write one, and with too much time on our hands and since we were in each other’s COVID pods, we gathered around a computer and took notes on how to write a Hallmark movie.

What Are Your Co-Writer Goals?

Juel is not particularly interested in being an author.  She doesn’t want to do the work of putting words on a page, but she is endlessly interested in stories and structure.  As a life-long reader, and marketing expert, she knows that stories are what move the human psyche.  So our deal was that she would do the bulk lifting on inventing the plot. I would walk her through how to outline and then I would do the actual writing.  But that meant that we had endless discussions on our characters, their motivations and how to get them to fulfill their plot obligations.

I don’t know how other co-authors work together, but with over ten years of experience in working with each other, we managed to make it through the outline with very little disagreement.  Having both taken the seminar we both could recognize when we were deviating from the Hallmark pattern.  And then we could also agree when we were fine with leaving that path.  Hallmark has a lot of constraints about how serious or realistic things can be (don’t mention divorce or cancer!), which is understandable for their brand, but for writing a novel it can feel like the characters are lacking in depth.

Did We Make it the End?

So did we make it through the writing process with our friendship and partnership intact?  Absolutely. It was a fantastically distracting project during a time when we very much needed one.  It was also fun to take on a challenge that neither of us had done before.  The script version achieved a PNWA Literary Contest Finalist ranking and we are quite proud of our little romance novel.  We’re looking forward to it’s upcoming release on November 18.  Check out the links below if you’re also interested in a sweet romance, all about wine, second chances and finding some place to call home.

AMAZON: https://amzn.to/4dfmAO6

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216958888-luckless-love