Paranormal Romantics

 Holey Moley! The 20^th of the month comes around very quickly. I’m coming to you from my winter lair in Northern Florida, specifically The Great Bend. Change of location often sparks my creative muse. Sometimes changing the way I do things also lights that spark.

Being an author is often a solitary path. I head to wherever I’m working for the day, shut out the world, and get to it. This past year has been a little different. My next book is a cooperative effort with six other writers. We started out as a Zoom support group. Other creatives who struggle with the same things. The publishing process is pretty complicated. We began chatting about books, marketing, social media, and all the frustrating things. Each person took a turn, either being a shoulder to cry on or crying on the other shoulders.

There’s a saying, “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” And boy, did I often fall down.

Writing with others in a co-op can be difficult, and it’s not for everyone. One of our group was quite hesitant about it. She’d been burned doing it before. But let me tell you, this was such a pleasure.

Even though we all, for the most part, write different genres and heat levels, we were able to come together. Sometimes it was so easy I began to doubt. You know. Wait for the shoe to fall. But nope. For instance, covers. (btw aren’t they gorgeous!). Our own Sydney Winward took all of our ideas and came up with them. Working with her, we tweaked mine, and I’m so happy with it that I could dance.

Here’s a list of questions we started with. We went through them one by one and discussed them. Open communication was and is key.

1.     What is the theme?

2.     What is the timeline?

3.     Who can participate?

4.     What is the goal? (just selling or bestseller tag or…)

5.     Issue of heat level

6.     Length of stories

7.     Anthology or separate books?

8.     If anthology, who is in charge?

1.     How does money work

2.     Timeline

3.     How publish?

9.     If separate stories

1.     Timeline

2.     How pub?

3.     How long? Word count

4.     How many stories from each?

5.     Heat level

10.  Marketing

11.  List of rules and formal commitment to the project

1.     Content

2.     Heat level

3.     word count

4.     Marketing each other

12.  Covers and cost

13.  Formatting

14.  Who is in charge?

 

I hope this helps anyone who is interested in writing this way. Go into it with your eyes open and be prepared to compromise.

 

Here’s a little about the series

 

 

Go on the adventure of The Mortar & Pestle series with international authors of different genres and vast backgrounds who came together and offer this exciting, often humorous series. From world travelers, teachers, bloggers, magazine editors, and award winners, there’s something for everyone in this series.

 

Link to series https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BS42PKHZ

And here's a link to free sample of series https://dl.bookfunnel.com/b1ytv2r7nq