Guest Blog: An Invite, A Sale, and An Excerpt—Oh My! by Renee Vincent

Hello romance fans! I'm glad you're here because I have some great news I'd like to share.

#1 — I finally started my very own Street Team, and I'm looking for a handful of avid readers who'd like to join up. 

• Do you love hunky Alpha males and unforgettable love stories?
• Do you enjoy promoting your favorite authors?
• Are you a romance fan who’s eager to post an honest review?

Then sign up today, and get access to excerpts not found on the web, free swag, Advanced Review Copies, and so much more—just for posting reviews, and helping me spread the word about my books! Click HERE to join!

#2 — I want to tell you about a "March Madness Sale" my fellow InkHeart Authors and I are having. Between now and March 27th, you can grab eleven contemporary romance books for only 99¢ each! Click HERE for all the direct buy links, or click the image above.

Here's a list of the books on sale:

• YOURS TO TAKE by Cathryn Fox
• TWISTED by Cari Quinn and Taryn Elliott
• MADE FOR McKINLEY by (yours truly) RENEE VINCENT
• GRIF AND THE PURRFECT STRANGER by Bianca D'Arc
• LAGUNA NIGHTS by Kaira Rouda
• THE OFFICE SLAVE by Opal Carew
• OUT OF BOUNDS by Erin Nicholas
• SHIFTERS: An Anthology by Suzanne Rock
• HIS TO PROTECT by Elena Aitken
• FREE AGENT by Mari Carr
• BEYOND LOVE AND HATE by Zoe York

#3 — The last thing I want to share is a teaser excerpt from my upcoming release, FALLING FOR FORESTER. It's book 2 of my Mavericks of Meeteetse Series, with the prequel and book 1 already available at your favorite vendor in both print and ebook formats. I hope you enjoy.

Excerpt:

Nothing says damsel in distress like smoke billowing from the hood of a full-sized pick-up truck on the side of the road. And nothing wills a man to pull over like a nice curvy butt in a tight pair of jeans.

Cole Forester shot a quick glance in his rear-view mirror before he made the decision to stop and help, taking in the length of the woman’s blonde hair falling down her back. Much to his surprise, her beautiful golden locks almost reached her succulent ass, stopping short of her low-rise denim belt loops. He tamped down a smile, pulled over, and threw the shifter in Park.

Looks like my shitty day is finally perking up.

★         ★       ★       ★       ★       ★ 

Other books in the series:

LONGING FOR LANGSTON: Prequel Novella (Brody & Liv) — Available now!

MADE FOR McKINLEY: Book 1 (Jonas & Ava) — Available now!

FALLING FOR FORESTER: Book 2 (Cole & Crys) — Coming in March!

WILD FOR WALLACE: Book 3 (Sawyer & Charlotte) — Coming 2016!

Connect With Renee Vincent:

RENEE VINCENT is a USA Today bestselling author who also pens humorous, sweet contemporary romance (with a smidgen of spunk) under the name GRACIE LEE ROSE. From the daunting, charismatic Vikings, to the charming, brazen Alpha male heroes of modern day (which now include cowboys) readers will be whisked away to a world filled with fast-paced adventure, unforgettable romance, and undying love. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Join Renee Vincent's newsletter and reap the benefits of being a loyal follower! (One lucky winner is drawn each month)

A Little Team Building

I'm at an odd stage in my career. While it has been wonderful to see my business grow, it's also been a little scary. Some days I feel as if I've been pulled in numerous directions, and I'm sure a lot of you, both writers and readers, can relate.

One thing I've learned over the past several weeks, is that no one can do everything on their own. We all need a little help sometimes, especially when things start to become overwhelming. Whether it is family, friends or coworkers, a good support system is crucial for not only helping you succeed, but keeping your sanity and humor. :)

Over the past few months, I've been working hard to put a support team in place to help me with my writing career. I feel blessed to be at a stage where I'm able to do this, especially after seven years of doing everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) myself. I'm happy to report that most of these relationships have already started to bear fruit.

Recently, I've gotten all of my self-publishing backlist up on Google Play and itunes, and I'm starting to put many books into print. I've released more audiobooks, and got my backlist up on Authorgraph. I'm also in the process of overhauling and growing my street team. If it wasn't for my administrative assistants, I never would have accomplished so much in so little time. I'm truly thankful for thier help, and hope that with them I'll be able to grow my business in ways that I have only been able to dream about before.

My support team isn't complete, but I'm working on it. At the end of the day, having people help with all of my administrative, financial and legal tasks will free up my time to do more of what I love most -- and what readers expect of me -- writing great books.

Who is your biggest supporter? You know, that one person you go to and can trust when times are tough. Tell me about it in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you!

~ ~ ~ Latest Release ~ ~ ~

Girl, Interrupted meets Beautiful Disaster in this thrilling and sexy debut novel, in which a college student learns her perfect life is a lie and finds new love where she least expects it—a mental institution. 

Now available from the following vendors:

           

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Teams, Tribes, Twitter, Oh My.

It's that time of the month again.

No, not THAT time. Sheesh.

Time to consider your social media platform.

Yes, all that time spent on Facebook and Twitter --- that's you, marketing yourself.  So, um, can it with the LOL Catz.

Or not, whatever.

But seriously, I read an amazing list of "stuff I oughtta be doing like right about now online to promote myself" and sort of got twitchy.
Facebook (check)
FAN page NOT profile (oh, um, okay)
Twitter (check)
"professional twitter account" (oh, um, okay)

Professional blog (Yeah yeah I got that, whew)
Professional website (under construction, but yeah)
tagline for your brand (Brewing Up Serious Passion--check)

Professional author headshot (I have WAY too many "fun" headshots that I like to use so I'm good there)
Google alerts (done)

Goodreads author page (yep)
Google+ account (did it--don't use it much though I thought "circles" were sort of "Dante-esque")
LinkedIn (yeah but wow it is annoying)
You Tube Channel (kinda--I'm of several minds about "cheesy book trailers" vs. "useful marketing tool")
Kindleboards something (oh, okay)
Amazon forums (huh?)
RWA stuff (nope, I'm a lowly e-pubbed author and hence do not feel welcome)

Good blog poster (religiously I love to hear myself talk)
Good blog commenter (I make a point to spend several hours a week on this BUT if I comment more than twice on yours and you never darken the door of mine? You're off my list)
Amazon Likes and Tags and other similar annoyances (yeah)
Myriad "pages" on endless author and review sites (sort of)
Tribrr (JUST JOINED)

and
my personal favorite today:
Assemble a Street Team.

Yeah....I rubbed my hands together. That sounded like something I could really sink my teeth into. I have one for the brewery, they get monthly Constant Contact email from me (Oh, I neglected the one about "have a professional newsletter"as I have grown up with the "professional newsletter" meme and have done and distributed zillions of them for various organizations and truly believe that they are going they way of the 8-track tape but I digress).

Why NOT do one for "Liz Crowe?"
I noodled around on some of my favorite writing craft and marketing blogs and discovered that many of us have already latched onto this device invented by small label recording company's to use their meager resources to rally viral fan groups around new bands. Yeah. Bloody Brilliant!

So, I hit the "start a group" button on Yahoo and I did it!
Wrote up the basics (yeah this is a "promote Liz" group BUT I do trades AND I'm giving out prizes EVERY MONTH to top tweeters/sharers/promoters AND every member gets some way cool swag from me PLUS I will reciprocate (within reason and time allowances) with your stuff too.
I uploaded all my book covers, all my author pages, blogs and what not, sent out a few initial invites and posted it in FB and Twitter.  We'll see where it takes me if anywhere.


My concern is that it NOT turn into yet another place to cut and paste the latest and greatest from a bunch of authors sorta promoting to each other but becomes a truly interactive way to learn more about great ways to promote ourselves (read: Liz but I share, remember?).

 I am trying to stay away from the EXTREME temptation to only use Facebook as a "here's my latest release/review/blogpost/interview/rant/rave/spew on writing so go read and comment and let me move on the the next one, thanks."

It's mighty tempting but every day I get on there and feel like EVERYBODY is using it that way and it gets all over my nerves. I'm trying to limit it in a sort of lame, back-to-facebook purity basics kind of way. Unless I have a KILLER blog post...or a release...nevermind.

So that said, My Next Big Step in My Social Networking Plan is to create that "fan page" on Facebook separate from my "profile" although the double work involved in it makes me twitchy all over again.

Tell us ONE THING you've done in the last year or so that made a huge difference to your marketing and promotions success.  And spare me the "oh I just write another book" one because we all KNOW we have to do that!
cheers
Liz