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3 Steps to Being a Hussy

A book hussy, that is.

After months of hard work, a little bit of crying, lots of cursing, and the occasional EEK I CAN'T DO THIS WHY AM I DOING THIS, A Night Without Stars has been released and is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo! 

And for about five minutes I was like this:

And then I remembered all the work that goes into promotion and I was like this:

You see, in the world of self-publishing (or publishing in general, for that matter) writing the book and making it available to readers is only half the battle. The other half is making people aware that your book exists and they have to stop what they're doing RIGHT NOW and go buy it IMMEDIATELY. So how do you do that? Well, one way is through reviews. 

Book bloggers can have a HUGE impact on your book's success (or failure). But bloggers are busy, elusive, magical creatures. They never come to you. You go to them and if you're very, very, lucky they may agree to read your book. If you've written something they like they might even give it a favorable review. If not, well, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Either way, it's worth your time and effort to seek them out. 

But how? Well, you have to be a bit of a hussy. Here's how in 3 easy steps: 

1) Find the book bloggers. My preferred method is using Goodreads. I look up books that are similar to mine (in this case young adult paranormal) and read the reviews. Often if a reviewer has a blog there will be a link somewhere in their review. Yes, this is time consuming. Yes, you hit a lot of dead ends (links that no longer function, review sites that have been shut down or moved, etc) but it's worth it in the end.

2) Read their review policy. I know, total duh, right? But I see messages all the time from annoyed bloggers who vent about authors not following simple directions. Don't be an author that is vented about. It's bad for business. Half the blogs you visit will be closed to accepting new books. If this is the case, DO NOT E-MAIL THEM. It's rude. Not to mention annoying. Lots of blogs will have a checklist of books they do and do not accept. Some accept self-pub. Some don't. Some only want actual physical copies. Some are okay with ebooks. READ THE REVIEW POLICY THOROUGHLY. If your particular book passes, then feel free to contact them. If not, try the next one. There's no point in wasting your time (and theirs) sending a query that you know is going to get rejected. I found a blog this morning that I was super excited about. They were actively seeking books to review: check. They accepted self-pub: check. They preferred young adult: check. They were fine with ebooks: check. But at the very bottom I read one sentence that had me sighing and moving on with a regretful shake of my head: we are so over books about vampires. Could I still have sent them an e-mail about ANWS? Well, technically yes. Would it have been a good fit? Nope. And since my little book is already facing an uphill battle, why make it even harder?

3) Send a professional, to-the-point query. This is the part where you need to show a little restraint. Don't send them your book. That's not how this works. You e-mail them a query. Perhaps something similar to this: 

Dear So & So (except you would never actually use so & so because you would take the time to read their 'about me' page and use their real names),

I would like to submit my recently released young-adult novel, 'A Night Without Stars', for review.

Title: A Night Without Stars

Release Date: 01/24/14

Length: 70k words

Genre: paranormal young-adult

Description: Sixteen-year-old Lola is a daredevil. She likes playing hooky, stealing cars, and making out with bad boy Everett James. The reason behind all her rebellious antics? Because she can. But what can one girl do against a horde of murderous vampires?

Aided by her sometimes sober father, her best friend Travis, and Maximus, the mysterious strange who appeared out of no where to save her life, Lola must accomplish what the rest of the human race has failed to do in the after math of the world wide massacre: survive.

But how do you survive when everything you know has been destroyed... and the one person you thought you could trust ends up being the most dangerous person of all?

Format: PDF (compatible with kindle) or Nook Book

Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13611785-a-night-without-stars
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Without-Stars-Jillian-Eaton-ebook/dp/B00I0KA6LU
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-night-without-stars-jillian-eaton/1118200565


Thank you for your time & consideration!
Jillian

Occasionally a blog will request a cover to be included, or will want to know how you found out about them. Make sure to include everything they've requested and remember to put links where they can find your book.

After the e-mail is sent (and it's ALWAYS an e-mail, never a goodreads message or a facebook message or, heaven forbid, a tweet) you play the waiting game. Personally, if I never hear back from a reviewer I do not e-mail them again. But that's personal preference. If they decline, I send them a short e-mail thanking them for their time. If they accept, I send along the book (in their preferred) method ASAP. Then you play the waiting game all over again. It's a long, arduous, time consuming process... but it's worth it in the end, even when you get the bad reviews along with the good.  

And that's it! That's how you become a book hussy. 

Cover Reveal for A NIGHT WITHOUT STARS

It's here! Exactly ten days before the release date of A Night Without Stars I present to you, without further adieu, the official cover:

Sixteen-year-old Lola is a daredevil. She likes playing hooky, making out with bad boy Everett James, and stealing cars. The reason behind all of her rebellious antics? Because she can. But what can one girl do against a horde of murderous vampires?

Aided by her sometimes sober father, her best friend Travis, and Maximus, the mysterious stranger who appeared out of no where to save her life, Lola must accomplish what the rest of the human race has failed to do in the aftermath of the world wide massacre: survive.

But how do you survive when everything you know has been destroyed... and the one person you thought you could trust ends up being the most dangerous 

person of all?

The cover is very, very different from the original cover of Pitch, the novella on which ANWS is based. I wanted something edgier, while still being very bare and stark. It took me almost two months of searching until I found base image on bigstockphoto. As soon as I clicked on it, I knew.

Even though the "pretty dress" trend is popular in young-adult right now, ANWS is definitely not a pretty dress kind of novel. I love the raw quality of the photo, and was particularly drawn by the model's eye. Her expression is solemn, but there's a spark in her eye that instantly makes me think of Lola. 

I wanted the font to be very simple and not distract from the main image, which is why I eventually decided on Century Gothic. I never planned on making the A's red. Initially I wanted the entire cover to be black and white, but it needed that extra "pop" to make it stand out. 

I'm really, really happy with how it turned out and I hope you are as well! Look for ANWS on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo on the 21st of this month! Until then, make sure to add it to your TBR list on Goodreads. Just click here.

RELEASE DATE: A Night Without Stars

Sixteen-year-old Lola is a daredevil. She likes playing hooky, making out with bad boy Everett James, and stealing cars. The reason behind all of her rebellious antics? Because she can. But what can one girl do against a horde of murderous vampires?

Aided by her sometimes sober father, her best friend Travis, and Maximus, the mysterious stranger who appeared out of no where to save her life, Lola must accomplish what the rest of the human race has failed to do in the aftermath of the world wide massacre: survive.

But how do you survive when everything you know has been destroyed... and the one person you thought you could trust ends up being the most dangerous person of all?

A NIGHT WITHOUT STARS

01 . 21 . 14

click here to add it on goodreads

EXCITING NEWS!

If you were a fan of my vampire themed novella Pitch, you're in for a treat. But before we get to the EXCITING NEWS let's go back a little bit. Back to May 15th, 2012 to be precise. 

On May 15th, between publishing A Ravishing Redhead and After Ever (the only other young-adult novel I've ever written), I released Pitch. I don't remember where I got the idea for a story about a snarky sixteen-year-old battling vampires, but I do remember it remains one of the easiest and downright fun novellas I've ever written.

Lola, in all her pain-in-the-ass glory, was a blast to write. She was tough. She was feisty. She was flawed. She said and did things I would never have the balls to do myself, and even when I left Pitch behind and focused solely on historical romance, she never quite left the back of my mind. 

A few weeks ago I reread Pitch. And I realized there was so much more to the story than what I'd written. So I sat down and started from the beginning. For those of you who loved Pitch, don't worry: everything that was in the original novella remains, with a few tweaks here and there. But now the story has been fully flushed out, the way it should have been from the very beginning.

And even though it has a new title, a new cover, a new release date, and a new length, the heart of the story remains the same: a young girl fighting forces beyond her control, struggling to survive in a world that has descended into madness. 

What is the new title, you ask? 

A NIGHT WITHOUT STARS

Sixteen-year-old Lola is a daredevil. She likes playing hooky, making out with bad boy Everett James, and stealing cars. The reason behind all of her rebellious antics? Because she can. But what can one girl do against a horde of murderous vampires?

Aided by her sometimes sober father, her best friend Travis, and Maximus, the mysterious stranger who appeared out of no where to save her life, Lola must accomplish what the rest of the human race has failed to do in the aftermath of the world wide massacre: survive.

But how do you survive when everything you know has been destroyed... and the one person you thought you could trust ends up being the most dangerous person of all?

I've already posted one excerpt on my Facebook page. For those of you who missed it, click here. Every Sunday leading up to the release (scheduled for January 2014) I'll post another excerpt. If you like what you read and you haven't already, make sure to add A Night Without Stars to your TBR list on Goodreads and help spread the word! 

But Jillian, I hear you asking, WHAT ABOUT THE COVER?! 

Oh man. The cover. I am in love with the new cover. Head-over-heels in love. In fact, I think it's my favorite cover ever. It's dark and simple and haunting and -- well, I won't say anymore. The cover reveal will be Sunday, December 15th. 

If you have a blog and would like to participate in the cover reveal, send me an e-mail (jaeaton@mail.com) or PM me on Facebook. Every blogger who participates will receive one free ebook copy to either keep for themselves or giveaway. 

As always, thank-you for all your love and support! Without the great reviews and the steady stream of e-mails asking about Lola, I don't know if I ever would have seriously pursued turning what I thought would be a little throwaway novella into a full length novel. You guys are the best!