Ella James

utopYA Awards 2013

If you know me, you know how much I love utopYAcon. It's a con for female writers of paranormal fantasy and the readers who love them, and last year, I was lucky enough to get a seat on a panel during the con's kick-off year.

I really can't even describe how impacting the experience was for me. It was one of those things that came at exactly the right time. I wasn't a 'known' author (at all), but I had a few books out, and I was starting to make money selling them. A few of the other authors there have become fabulous, international author-stars this year...but last year they still had time to talk to newbies like me - and I really benefited from some of their advice - not to mention I had a ton of fun with everyone I met.

Angeline Kace and Heather Hildenbrand taught me how to tweet. I went bar-hopping with Jessica Sorensen and Delphina and Amy Evans. For the first time ever, I started to feel like I could be a successful author.

Anyway, fast forward a year, and it's time to vote for the 2013 utopYAcon Awards. I'm thrilled to be nominated in two categories - best YA sci-fi novel (Here) and break out author of the year. Even if I only get my husband's vote, it's exciting to be nominated. I know a lot of the other authors nominated, and everyone (that I know, anyway) is both talented and super nice. So if you get a chance, go cast your vote!

And if you've never heard about utopYA, go read about this super fun convention. It happens in Nashville every June.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot: I'm doing a group signing Thursday, June 27 from 6-8 p.m. If you want to drop by and meet me (as well as a bunch of wonderful authors), here's the FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/151861124993285/.

xox

P.S. If you're curious. I'm shooting to release both Chasing Cross and Trapped in July. No promises yet, but that's the goal. ;)

Selling Selling Scarlett

Selling Scarlett has been out for almost a month now. About a week after it came out, after I'd changed the price from 99 cents to $3.99, it broke into the Amazon Top 100 and got 'down' to #80 overall. This happened during a nightmarish beach trip during which my husband ended up going to the hospital; the next day, we had to go home early (no refund on the room). The beach trip was supposed to be a much-needed break before a grueling, two-week-long medical trip for my son, and I was pretty bummed about how badly it went. Then I checked the rankings that night and it was pure magic. More so, even, because no one in the Ella James camp had been online trying to drive up sales. Don't you just love it when things come together like that?

I got the idea for Selling Scarlett years ago, at a time when I desperately needed money and had a certain something to sell, had I wanted to. (I didn't!) I think I sold my platelets to the blood bank instead. ;) But I filed the idea away for future use. I didn't think of it again until one weekend this Spring when I was working on Trapped, feeling bored and tired of writing things on a schedule. So I wrote Scarlett. I put everything else on hold and just let this story take me where it did. And I was surprised at where it went!

Writing about a brothel was one thing, but my hero being blackmailed by a hooker? That kind of thing was not my forte. I hated how Hunter just kept right on going, according to Priscilla's plan. I hated how long it took for him to get together with 'Libby'. I hated what happened to Cross. The more I wrote, the more I worried. What would people think of this crazy book? What would my family say? A romance novel is one thing, but this was racy. Dark. And not in that ever popular we're-broken-till-we-find-each other kind of way. Just dark.

So I held my breath when I pressed 'publish'. What would my writer friends think? What about my YA readers? Someone would have something to say about it. I bit my lip and waited for rotten tomatoes to start flying at my head. The good thing was, there were a lot of flowers and a lot of confetti first. There are so many nice people in the world - readers who just want to build you up and help you. People who are happy to e-mail you and let you know a man from New Orleans would never say 'Crayfish'; it's 'Crawfish'. People who tell all their friends how much they loved your book. But for every handful who like it, there's someone who doesn't.

i knew this book was going to be different than her previous writings but nothing prepared me for this . one star is too many to give this book. shame on you ella.

Shame is such a heavy thing to put on anyone. All I could think about for days was that someone thought I should be ashamed of myself. Not just someone. A former fan. I'd never had this kind of feedback from any of my YA books, and I have to be honest: It was hard to handle. I've never been the kind of person who can just shrug off what other people think. I don't like disappointing people. I'm a perfectionist. I don't like conflict and have only in the last few years learned that sometimes it's necessary.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my new book. Why couldn't I write something more socially acceptable? Why didn't I write something more reader friendly, like a campy mystery or Christian fiction? (I have a Christian romance plotted, TBR under another pen name, and it, too, took a dark turn after about ten seconds of me sitting at my keyboard). I'm a fairly modest person in 'real life'. Why don't I have a problem churning out a steamy sex scene? I don't know why - I just don't!

Finally I reached a bottom line for myself, and this is it: If you're going to be a fiction writer, there's got to be some magic in it for you. You can try to write to the market to a certain extent, especially if you've got the benefit of a quick publication time (which comes with being an ebook author), and I guess you can censor your story to a certain extent - but part of the thrill and beauty of writing is writing what you want. Writing a story how you see it. And accepting that not everyone is going to like it. I think this is especially true for romance writers, who take so much heat (har har) for writing what we enjoy.

My best buddy in the town where I live doesn't like romance novels, so she didn't read Scarlett. My sister bought it, but I'm not sure how she liked it. I can tell you up front that it's not her kind of story. I'm pretty sure if people in my hometown knew that I write, they wouldn't be sharing snippets from Selling Scarlett in the lifestyle section of our little newspaper. And you know what? That's okay with me. I wrote a story that was interesting to me. I wrote the characters how I thought they would really be. From start to finish, this book took me less than two months to produce. Is it perfect? Um, of course it's not. But I had fun, and people are reading it, and the reviews are more good than bad - at least so far. ;)

Today, on one of my favorite cause/charity blogs, I saw a quote that really stuck with me:

I could still be working in the admissions office, or at the sports clothing store, or at the newspaper, but I'm not. I chose to say something - to tell my own stories. I wanted to write books, so I started writing them. They might not be as good as I want them to be yet; I'm not perfect at this. But I'm learning. And I'm doing it. Which is more than a lot of people can say...

I set this quote as my computer's wallpaper, and every time I get an icky review, I'm going to read it. You can't win 'em all, but you can win some of them. Maybe even most of them. And that's pretty damn cool.

Selling Scarlett Big Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
If you can't enter via Rafflecopter for whatever reason, just comment below and let me know what you did!

Selling Scarlett is finally out! You can get it at Amazon.com and BN.com. I hope to have it for sale at the iBookstore and on Kobo soon. :)

Just a reminder: This is an adult book not suitable for readers under the age of 17 or for readers who do not enjoy adult genre romance. It has some steamy scenes, so please don't make this an auto-buy just because you enjoyed my young adult books. If you enjoy adult romance, I think you will love Selling Scarlett - lots of people have - but I don't want anyone to be surprised by the difference in maturity level. ;)

If you've already read Selling Scarlett and are wondering about the second book in the Love Inc. Series, it's called Chasing Cross, and it will be out this summer, just as soon as I can get it to you!

So you guys, I have a smexy book!

If you've noticed my upcoming releases tab at the top of the blog (which, for all intents and purposes, is pretty useless these days!), you might have noticed this project has been scheduled for a while. Actually, that was another project. This particular story came to me a few weeks ago, in the middle of the chaos of my son's eye issues, and it just wouldn't leave me alone.

I was working on edits for Trapped, but this new plot - well, really, these new characters - kept dominating my headspace, so I shuffled everything around and decided to ignore my schedule, for once. This is one of the hardest parts of being an ebook writer: trying to give people an idea of when your books will be out without having the benefit of a large team to help you meet a certain deadline.

I usually feel a lot of pressure to rush out the next release, so it's a big deal for me to deviate from my schedule. Even if I'm slow with a release (like with Trapped, because of those issues with my son), it's on my mind ALL TH E TIME and I'm putting a lot of effort into making it happen. Because my husband is my editor, books dominate almost every part of our lives. If he's working, I'm watching our son, and vice versa; our time is scheduled 'round the clock in a way that can get really exhausting, but we do it because we both love books. (I'll have you know, neither of us is allergic to money either.) ;)

So hubby stopped editing Trapped and put on his fulltime Daddy cap in order to give me the time to work on the new project. I finished the first draft in a record time, which reinforced our decision and let us know it was the right one. Since then, I've been going over everything again, and hubby has been editing. We're still dealing with my son's medical issues, which basically means working overtime to get both Trapped and smexy out.

The smexy book, Selling Scarlett, is a lot different than my other books. Scarlett is in her 20s, and Hunter is 30. I know, I know - new adult is about college-aged characters, but Hunter is 30, and that's just the way it is. Scarlett is in graduate school, so I'm not sure if this book is adult or new adult - but let me tell you, it's NOT young adult.

Just in case you can't tell from the cover, this book is moving at a different speed than Stained and Here. If you don't like adult romance and all that it entails, you probably won't like this. If you're my parent or grandparent, consider yourself warned.

So far I've been surprised by the response to Selling Scarlett. A lot of people have been really enthusiastic, including some who've never read my young adult books. Some others have been blunt about their lack of interest in this, either because of the swear words or because of the mature content. If you're in that boat, more power to you. Not everyone enjoys genre romance, and that's okay with me.

If you do like a steamy story, I hope you love Scarlett and Hunter.

What I enjoyed most about this book was watching (er, writing) their relationship grow, and seeing how Scarlett would handle the big decision she makes. From the very beginning, I was totally intrigued by this; I'm the type of woman who doesn't even go into dressing rooms at the mall with other women, because I'm so embarrassingly modest, so I feel pretty sure I could never put myself in the kind of situation Scarlett chose. Maybe that's why it was so interesting to write.

I have to confess, I'm just 'grey' enough to admire people who are willing to put everything they have on the line for someone dear to them. And when I say everything, I do mean...well, everything.

I'm going to share a snippet from the book soon, but for now, here's the blurb:

Scarlett DeVille doesn't belong at a party like this: one where the gowns cost more than her Camry and the cigars are worth more than her grad school textbooks. Dragged by her best friend to the home of a playboy bourbon heir, Scarlett is merely playing dress-up, rubbing elbows with the California elites that banished her troubled family years ago.

After ten years of nonstop debauchery, Hunter West has finally managed to screw himself. One night three months ago, Hunter was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when something awful happened, he was too damned drunk to stop it. With the FBI on his tail for a crime didn't commit and a blackmailer in his bed, Hunter is in noose-deep; his hands are tied—behind his whip-sore back.

When Scarlett stumbles into Hunter's den of vices, she's a light in the darkness, a flame in the void. And, just like everything else he touches, Hunter mars her in a record time. To rectify the damage done, Scarlett needs money she doesn't have, and she's come up with a foolproof way to get it.

Follow Scarlett to the lush Nevada brothel where she'll auction her virginity and risk the only thing that's not for sale: her heart. The highest bidder is a familiar face, with wicked hands and the devil's mouth—and a secret so dark that it could cost her life.

Trapped and more: an unpleasant update

Where is Trapped? That's a good question. I tried to put it off for a little while, but I know you all deserve an answer from me, so here it is.

My 18-month-old son, who has congenital hearing loss in his left ear and an issue with turning his head all the way to the left, is now having some serious issues with his left eye. I know what you're thinking: How serious can an eye issue really be? Since my son already has some 'hardware' issues on the left side of his head and neck, any issue with his left eye is a big one - but his is even bigger than that, because the surface of his eye lacks feeling. It's like a diabetic's foot in terms of its ability to heal, and right now he has an ulcer on his cornea that's keeping him from seeing from that eye and also putting him at risk for losing the eye. That would be heartbreaking for our family, since my son already has the hearing and neck mobility challenges. Because this eye problem is so extremely rare, it's taken us from December until just this week (+ one cross-country trip and many medical opinions) to get a treatment plan mapped out, and both of our two treatment options are fairly involved...

Regardless, my husband (and editor) and I have been working hard, and we expect to have not just Trapped but another, surprise, book coming out as soon as we can get a breather! That should be in the next few weeks.

I'm so sorry for the delay and for my hesitation in updating. I appreciate your support more than you know.

xoxoxox,
Ella

Trapped (Here 2) Update

I wanted to give you guys an update on Trapped, since the current version of Here says it should be out in December 2012. I had hoped to release it the day after Christmas, but holiday plans have pushed it back a little. Also, my sister had a baby (yayyy!), so my family spent a few days in New Orleans after Christmas. My guess at the moment is plus or minus two weeks. The closer I get to being finished, the harder it is to say exactly when I'll release it, because new things always seem to pop up at the end of the process. I'm working on it, moving as fast as I can after getting home last night. I'll definitely keep you posted. I hope everyone had a great holiday and has a peaceful, healthy, prosperous 2013!

xoxox,
Ella

Top 100 Young Adult ebooks of 2012

Amazon released its Top 100 Young Adult & Children's ebooks of 2012, and both Stolen and Chosen (Stained Series books two and three) were included on the list. Hoorah!

You can take a peek at the list here.

Here's the beautiful cover for Trapped, book two in The Here Trilogy. I'm hoping to release it at the end of December, but there's no firm date until my editor takes a peek at it.

Looking for gifts without breaking the bank? How about 20 Young Adult books at 99 cents each now through Monday on Amazon? Buy some books for yourself. Gift books to others. Books are still the biggest entertainment bang for the buck, and there's SO many great titles to choose from.

Romance, adventure, humor, or contemporary? How about Sci-fi, fantasy, or mythology? We've got you covered!

Pick me!

Pick me!

Have a great weekend, reader- and writer-friends~

Win a Kindle Fire!

I have a fun surprise for you guys! YA author S.R. Johannes invited me to be part of a holiday sampler, featuring snippets from books by 14 bestselling YA authors. My ebook, Here, is featured in the sampler, which is free on Amazon - but the coolest part is, when you read it, you'll find a code you can use to win a Kindle Fire! Here's the official info:

Jingle all the YA - sampler of 14 bestselling authors!

Download ebook for free (at Kindle, Kobo, or Apple) and enter to WIN A KINDLE FIRE HD (or ereader of your choice up to value of 200$)

It's easy to enter!

1) Download the free ebook here.

2) Find the secret phrase embedded in the 14 excerpts

(HINT: there is one bold character in each book snippet. Combined, they make 13 letters and one punctuation mark).

3) Enter secret phrase (14 characters) into Rafflecopter link below.

The contest ends on December 31st. Winner will be announced January 7th. Only open to US participants.

Here's the Rafflecopter:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0b7ad24/

Happy hunting, and good luck!
P.S. All the snippets are really good. I think you'll like them. :)

Before You Go, my YA contemporary romance, has a new cover, designed by the amazing Regina at Mae I Design. If you're in a contemporary kind of mood, check out this fast, fun read!

Exalted is out + updates

Exalted is out - finally! It's been out for a while, but I've been neglecting my blog and my Twitter and updating only my Facebook pages. I spend most of my time on Facebook, so if you want to join me, you can friend me at www.facebook.com/ellajamesbooks, or you can follow me on my official author page at www.facebook.com/ellajamesauthorpage. The friendable page was created first, but I'm gradually moving to the official author page. For now, I maintain both of them, so you can take your pick. Oh, and did I mention I give free stuff away ALL THE TIME?

Okay. I give free stuff away all the time! :) Kindles, gift cards, jewelry, books... I've even given away two pairs of Julia's super cool Converse All-Stars. One of my future giveaways will include tickets to utopYAcon 2013. If you're here at the blog today, Saturday, November 10 (American time), be sure to go by my Facebook pages, because I'm giving away a Kindle!

Exalted is available right now at BN.com (for Nook), and at Amazon.com. You can find some of the links on the sidebar to the right of here. Exalted will soon be available at Smashwords.com and Kobo.com. I can post it to Kobo soon, but I have to have someone format it for me, for Smashwords. Still, I hope to have it for sale at both places very soon. It's distributed to the iBookstore via Smashwords, so as soon as I submit it there, it'll be on its way to the iBookstore.

Now that the Stained Series is finished, I've shifted my attention to the Here Trilogy. If you haven't already started Milo and Nick's story, you can find it at Amazon, and also at BN.com. It's YA paranormal romance, just like the Stained Series. The second book in the Here Trilogy is called Trapped, and I'm having a great time with it. Writing in first-person (from the "I" perspective, as if I am the character) is a lot easier for me than third-person (in Stained, I refer to everyone as "he" and "she", like I'm a narrator). It's been a refreshing change, after so many Stained books in third-person.

I'm hoping to have Trapped ready by the first week of December, but as always, I can't be sure. I'm not giving an official release date until my editor has done his first read-through of the story. Still, I'm super excited about this release, and I have a good feeling about the timeline.

Regina from Mae I Design is doing the Trapped cover, as well as a cover for my next release: January's Wilderness. I'm hoping to put that book out before the new year. It's different than what I've published so far, and I really think you'll like it. It's new adult/adult contemporary romance with a pretty big thrill/suspense-factor and a really hot hero. January is such a fascinating character with so many secrets. One day she just started talking in my head, so I've had to rearrange my writing schedule to accommodate her. I can't tell you much about her story without spilling some of her secrets, but I'll try to post a blurb sometime soon.

After that, it's Obsession's turn. That one is what I call a 'hometown love story', kind of like Jessica Sorensen's The Secret of Ella and Micah or My Heart for Yours, by Steph Campbell and Jolene Perry. The guy and girl go way back, and their obsession takes them all the way to Hollywood, where he's a musician and she becomes a celebrity photographer. I'll try to give you more info about that one soon, too, but it's classic contemporary romance, spanning about ten years. The way I plan to 'follow' the heroine, Paisley Gray, reminds me a little of author Lisa Kleypas's treatment of Liberty Jones in her contemporary romance, Sugar Daddy. Which is to say, Obsession is really Paisley's story, and there just so happens to be a whole lot of recurring Trent (the hero).

The Obsession cover can be found further down on this page (it's gray and white - a couple making out behind a car window). I'm excited to share the January's Wilderness cover with you, when Regina finishes it.

Oh, and in case you're a Here fan, don't worry - I'm going to finish that trilogy pretty soon: probably in February.

If you ever want an update on my release schedule, just check the top of this page! :)

More soon,
Ella

xoxox

Exalted recently got a new cover. I know, I know... it's not even out yet, but I went ahead and got Regina at MaeIDesign to make me a cover that looked more the other three. I think she did a fantastic job, and I can't wait for this book to go live on Amazon (and B&N, Smashwords, Kobo, and the iBookstore).

My copy editor and I have joked that Exalted is cursed. Since the initial virus/file issue that prompted me to have to re-type the whole book, it seems like everything that could possibly delay the book has happened... even to my editor.

Last night as I was creating the publication page inside Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform, Exalted decided to give me one last hoorah. My 14-month-old woke up sick, and spent the rest of the night getting sick with his first-ever tummy bug. Actually, his first-ever sickness of any kind. (As an infant, he skipped the colds and ear infections and went for the big ticket surgeries).

He seems to be feeling better today, so with the help of some Justin Bieber music videos, Team James is back on track to get you Exalted soon. It may end up being a Monday release, but I know this for sure: Every day until it's out (which I hope will only be today - Sunday, 10/28), I'm doing a giveaway on my FB page. Come join me! If you've waited this long, you definitely deserve it. ;)

Exalted Update & Lessons Learned

In case you haven't noticed, Exalted is still not out. We're dealing with more production-related issues. Nothing nearly as big as the virus that corrupted the original document file and forced me to re-type the whole thing. Just regular blips and a nasty case of bad luck, whereby everything is taking about five times longer than it should.

I keep saying it will be out in a few days, and some other random roadblock pops up. I think I understand now why traditional print books take a year to hit the shelves. =/ Before Exalted, I had always been pretty blessed on the ease-of-release front, but this book is testing my sanity. Kind of fitting, once you know what happens in it. ;)

I have all my fingers and toes crossed for a nonspecific but very soon release, and I want to thank you all again for your amazing patience. I've said it before, and I'll say it again now: I will find a way to make this up to you - probably with a giveaway (or ten)! :)

Big hugs,
Ella

P.S., if you have not already read HERE, you should. It's the first in my new YA paranormal romance trilogy, and most people seem to really like it. If you have read HERE, go grab a book I wish I could get my hands on at the moment: brand new release Unmaking Hunter Kennedy, by the amazing Anne Eliot, author of Almost. This is a contemporary YA read, but even if you don't normally read much contemporary, I have a feeling you will love it.
xoxoxox

Another Exalted Update

Hi guys!
I know some of you are checking Amazon every day for Exalted, so I wanted to give you an update. I've finished re-typing the book. (If you have no idea what that means, you can read all about Virusgate 2012 here). Everyone involved in the process is looking over the book again, just to be sure no new mistakes were introduced during the re-typing. Unfortunately (for you, anyway!) I'll be out of town this weekend, hosting a baby shower for my sister, so the book will definitely not be live any time this weekend.

My hope is to press "publish" sometime next week, but this is just a goal, so don't mark your calendars just yet. If you want another update, check my Facebook Sunday night or Monday.

I want to thank everyone who's been checking and re-checking Amazon, my blog, and my Facebook pages, waiting patiently for Exalted to come out, and being so kind to me while you wait. You could be annoyed and angry that you've had to wait, but instead you've all been nothing but supportive as I dealt with the virus issue. You've all helped dramatically reduce my stress-level by being so sweet. I appreciate it more than you know.

I think that calls for some Exalted Release Day contests and swag, don't you? I'm going to spend my weekend away trying to think of some awesome prizes for you.

If you've already won a prize and are waiting to hear from me, please know that I haven't forgotten you. I've felt compelled to put the re-typing of Exalted first, but as soon as the book is live, I'm going to the post office! Promise.

In the meantime, if you're looking for something to read, check out Here, the first in my YA paranormal romance trilogy, which is next up now that I'm finished with the Stained Series. :)

Thanks again, so much, for your support, and I hope you guys have a great weekend!

xx,
Ella

Exalted

Exalted is coming soon! I promise it is! :)

After my editor got the flu and we had some family stuff come up, I finally had the book all ready to go a few days ago, but when I tried to convert it into a Kindle file, all the punctuation marks kept turning into symbols. I originally thought it was because I was using OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Word, but after consulting a few people, I found out a virus had become attached to my document file.

I've been having to re-type the whole document since it can't be copied and pasted without giving us further formatting problems. It's been pretty tedious, but I'm making progress. I sometimes make my hubby take a turn, but in general I don't trust anyone but me to re-type my book. I wish I did, because I have at least one sweet friend who volunteered to do it for me. I guess I just feel too much like typing the book = writing the book. Even though that's really not true, I feel panicked at the thought of someone else doing it. (Well, except the hubs. I can stand over his shoulder and micromanage freely).

Anyway... I wanted you guys to know what the delay is all about. I like to keep you posted, even if it means including the boring details.

In the meantime, be sure to check out HERE, the first book in my other series!

Hope everyone had a great weekend,
El

Stained is FREE!

Stained is free again on Amazon! Woohoo! Here's the link.

If you liked the Stained Series, tell your friends. :)

Exalted release + new contemporary

Oh, guys. Exalted is giving me trouble. The book is ready to go, but I'm having issues with formatting. I promise, you will have it in your hands soon, if I have to take my entire computer to a repair shop and pay someone to get this mess figured out for me. I can't wait for you to read it! For daily updates on when it will be out (and it WILL be very soon), follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/ellajamesbooks.

So here's my surprise:

Meet Obsession, my adult contemporary romance, which should be out in time for Christmas. :) The cover is a paparazzi shot of the hero and heroine through the window of his SUV. He's a famous musician, and she's a celebrity portrait photographer. They're from the same small, Southern town and they have a lot of history. You might even call it an obsession. ;) I'll try to release an official blurb soon, but for now it's back to formatting!

Hope everyone's had a great week and has fun weekend plans.
xx,
El