Somehow I have to incorporate Valentine’s Day with my cover reveal, a first look at the blurb for A Taken Tale, and a publishing discussion.
This should be weird.
The first of three You & I e-book cover reveals has begun. Book One in the series: A Taken Tale, is nearing the point where ARCs can be sent out to reviewers and book bloggers. If you wish to participate, just reach out and I’ll happily add you to the list.
One down.
Blurb: You & I Book One: A Taken Tale
Have you ever wanted to be a bad girl?
E.A. Barker does not like to follow “the rules” so it should not be any surprise he is not playing fair with this erotica series.
As the title suggests, You & I is written from a first person point of view which graphically details explicit sexual encounters where the protagonist is speaking directly to his lover－you－the reader－in the present moment. If you dare to read this book you will be the main character, and you will be a very naughty girl.
A Taken Tale explores a fantasy common to many women . . . a lustful alpha male who does what he wants with women who express their interest in living out a fantasy. It is a “Be careful what you wish for. . . .” cautionary story which goes well beyond what you had in mind.
Two down.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Three down.
If Draft2Digital was a book, I’d give it a 4 star rating.
If you follow their suggested method of using MS Word Styles with page breaks in addition to picking one of their themes, you end up with a very nice looking product—for an e-book.
They did fall short in a few areas from my technologically limited point of view:
- For whatever reason, the Title Page would not format the way we are accustomed to seeing them in a print book, nor did it pick up their theme. When compared to how the rest of the book appears, it’s very lacklustre.
- I also hate not being able to space things how I like in e-books. Yeah, yeah, I must not be a hater and just accept the flawed technology like everyone else does in the 21st century.
- D2D only offers a very limited amount of front matter relative to what I feel is necessary for an erotica book. When I attempted to use what they offer in conjunction with my additional front matter pages, the formatting and Table of Contents took a hit. I feel an e-book should give a reader access to everything they would find in the paperback and presented in a similar way. This may be old-school thinking but this is what I want to give people who buy my books.
- By opting to upload all front and back matter with the book itself, it appears I cannot have one of their auto-generated Author Pages. I can live with this if I must.
I will keep playing around with ideas to get the most from this publishing platform until the official release date, but overall I am good with the book going to market with only these minor flaws.
Moving on. . .
DO NOT select Scribd or any library distribution options if your book contains sex.
Who knew?
Romance/Erotica authors need to say quite a bit to avoid “sensitive” readers from being “triggered”.
Here’s how I dealt with it:
- Title: A Taken Tale. There’s a hint.
- Blurb: “Have you ever wanted to be a bad girl?” and “. . . details explicit sexual encounters. . . ” and “If you dare to read this book you will be the main character, and you will be a very naughty girl.” and “. . .a lustful alpha male who does what he wants with women who express their interest in living out a fantasy.”
Well that’s obviously not clear enough in this day and age so we’ll continue:
- My books are published ONLY under categories which include the words: erotic and erotica. Hey sensitive person, did you accidentally stumble into these categories? I guess it could happen.
- Preface: “. . . I set out to write well-developed fast-paced novelette length “chick-lit”, “mommy porn”, “one-handed reads”. . . featuring sexually explicit acts of passion with a dash of mild kink thrown in occasionally.”
Still not clear enough?
- Introduction: “As stated literally everywhere I could, this book contains graphic depictions of various sexual acts and scenarios. You should be at least eighteen years of age without too many sexual hangups to read this series. Readers sensitive to potential triggers due to indoctrination or abuse of any kind should probably pick a nice Romance story with a HEA instead. . . “.
I know some authors and publishers don’t do enough in the reader advisory department, but let’s face it, there are far too many people in the world who live for their next chance to become offended.
You & I Erotic Tales 