Characters on TWITTER, Cole has an account!

So, BRILLIANT IDEA, Cole Reid now has a TWITTER account! I thought I'd try something different. I'll tweet as Cole. That way my dour attitude will be appropriate at times. I thought I'd give it a try. If you TWEET, follow Cole! https://twitter.com/ColeAndEllis  @ColeAndEllis Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you think it would be fun to message Cole? And what about the other characters? Anyone you'd like to see tweet? This is actually NOT an easy thing to do. It involves more e-mail addresses and signing out of Twitter from my phone because I can't have more than one account signed in at the same time. ETC. I will probably tweet from my phone as Cole, and from the computer as myself. I'm trying to think of promo things to do. How does one promote a book? How do I promote my book in a unique way that stands out? CREATE A TWITTER FOR COLE REID!!! That's what I came up with. I'm an unconventional person. I'm quirky, and I enjoy reinventing the wheel. (Not really.) But I do seem to take on more stress and aggravation at times because I don't always follow the pack and do what everyone else is doing. I'm the one who thinks, "What should I write about? Oh, I know- SUICIDE! That will get people reading me." ME, an unknown writer that has practically NO experience, and sucks at grammar! Yeah, I think my wheels are square.

But I wrote about suicide anyway. When Love is Not Enough was my first adventure. It was a personal journey. 2010 was a painful year personally, so I wrote about pain because I felt much of it. (Again, because I have said this before, WLINE is not an autobiography.) I write out of what I feel because I think it helps my characters FEEL more real. If you can experience their angst, then I'm doing my job. If you are bored, then I'm not. Right after publishing WLINE through Dreamspinner Press, I wrote The Cost of Loving. I would have LOVED nothing more than to publish that novel right after WLINE so fans could have gotten the complete picture. But I failed. TCOL was rejected. And rejected, And rejected. (3 times) I really feel that it was not ready. The book is too long. The plot TOO complicated. And I ramble too often. However, I feel that NOW is the time to bust my ass and get it done! My editor spent 50 hours going over the manuscript. She could have spent more time, but I think she was trying to save me money. (Editing costs!) She was also kind enough not to bill me yet. She said she could wait. So awesome and kind of her!!! But after 50 hours she was only getting started. She went through it once and as I have gone through it also ONCE, I noticed things she missed. Hence, the several-step process! Phase 1 was going over all her grammar and word edits. I corrected my original manuscript and took notes one what I ALWAYS DO WRONG. I recommend this to newer writers. Make lists. Keep notebooks. Keep a log of comments that are GOOD about your writing, or BAD about your writing! We are human, and we make the same mistakes repeatedly! ...And in writing that, I would bet my editor would change the sentence to "We repeatedly make the same mistakes", or she might take out the adverb entirely. Regardless, TCOL went through lots of grammatical edits and now it is on to stage two! REWRITES! I say that like it is major, but it isn't that bad. There are 4 chapters that stand out as ones that need to change drastically. And maybe two other that need to be altered because of the other 4. TCOL has 37 chapters!! 4 chapter rewrites is minimal! But just in saying it has 37 chapters makes me think that some need to GO! I will condense it along the way. I am very happy with CHAPTER 1. One down - 36 more to go! grrr. 

The excerpt on my website is an abbreviated version. Chapter one (as well as the prologue) has a LOT of sexual content. I'm debating about putting that up on my site. Do authors do that? (I'm asking, because I'm too lazy to hop site to site and see what excerpts others list.) I know it is stereotypical in this genre to have sexual content, but I'm not sure it is necessary on a website. THOUGHTS? (I like reader's thoughts.) Anyway, The Cost of Loving is under rewrites and I hope to get it all ready soon. I'm e-mailing my graphic designer TODAY to talk formats. :) 

I DID start writing book three soon after I finished TCOL, but I haven't revisited it in a while. This is a three part series called Unconditional Love. Part one: When Love is Not Enough is Jimmy's part of the story. Part two is Matt's (The Cost of Loving). Part Three is all about Darian Weston. The title is long but necessary. (Necessary because I couldn't think of a short title that encapsulated everything that this book was about.) Love, Trust, and Learning to Live Again is only partially written, but a novel I hope to complete this year! Especially if TCOL is published soon, I can only imagine how many readers will be screaming at me for the last part!! Darian is my favorite character and I will not blame them at all. Readers, fans, I WILL write the rest of this saga! Although the challenge will be to write a blockbuster finale. I hope I can! 

After writing so much "pain" with Jimmy, Matt, and Darian, I needed a break! My Roommate's a Jock was my break. I needed lighthearted and funny. I wrote Cole. Cole now has a TWITTER, did I mention that? lol 

MRJWC was also a HUGE break in that it catapulted to the top of Amazon.com's list of Best Selling Gay Fiction. This is something that has never happened to me. It's a first! WLINE was not a huge seller! "Jock" as it is referred to, or MRJWC as I call it, spent 12 days at #1, 2 days at #2, and today it is #3. Not bad in the scheme of things. I never dreamt it would sell so well. It seems that for the most part people like it. It gets mostly 4-stars. I like 4 stars! :) There are some GREAT reviews on Goodreads.com, and on Amazon itself. I'm just trying to think of ways to keep it up near the top for a little longer. Marketing is huge, and timing. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for The Cost of Loving to hit Amazon / Kindle while "Jock" was still selling well. How do I do that? Well, obviously I need to edit TCOL faster. ha ha. I'm trying. The challenge is keeping "Jock" in the limelight just a little bit longer. Can you help me? (Those who read my blogs.) Word of mouth is a pretty fast conductor of wildfire. So, if you liked my book, tell people. 

I have this forum to talk. I blog. I tweet. I use FB. I'm on Goodreads. I'm new to the scene, but I don't know exactly how I WANT to do promotions of material. Blog-hop? Maybe. Time, is something I don't always have. That is all for now. Comment. Post reviews. Tell me what you think. E-mail. Whatever. I like talking to people. Sometimes. ;)

Wade


PS: To those who might wonder, I did not give TCOL to anyone to read ahead of time, except for two beta readers last year! ... just saying...