New Moo Cards!

My new Moo cards came in!  Squee!  And for those of you who don't know, the Moo company is a delightful little business who makes stellar business cards :D

I blogged about the last set I got here.  And since I got a new blog design, I wanted to match it with new cards!  I absolutely love these little things, so I just had to share.

Yes, Moo.  I am just as excited as thee!

What do you guys think?  I absolutely love!  And they match the blog.  I also got this little number to hold my cards with:

So very excited!  This is an excellent little company and the cards are really affordable.  Like $20 for 100 and there's discount codes you can obtain to make them cheaper on your first order.  I even have a couple of coupon cards if anyone's interested.  Just email me ;D

I'm really happy with this purchase and will continue to buy from them.  These cards are just a hit at the writer's conferences.  They're just so unique!

Hope you all enjoyed seeing them!!!

Winners of Post 2012 Giveaway!

Thanks to Carrie Butler for the stellar blog button!

Hey all!  I'm blogging on a Saturday to announce the winners of my RWA 2012 giveaway!  The first winner on the Raffle gets first pick of three books and the second gets the remaining three books.  I'll email the first winner, and as soon as I here back from them I'll email the second :D

Winner must respond within 48 hours, or the second pick will get bumped up to first pick!

And a final thanks to everyone who entered! :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NA Misconceptions: An Analysis on New Adult fiction (with pictures!)

Hey friends!  Happy Monday.  So I've been wanting to do this post for a while.  I'm really seeing some things happening for New Adult fiction (characters in fiction between the ages of 18 - 25) right now, and I feel they should be discussed.  So to do this post, I had to do some research...and go on a little field trip.

My Local BN! Date - 8.3.12

I'm sure you all know this place above!  'Tis the awesomely, awesome bookstore named Barnes and Noble. (Pardon the clear lighting fixture problem they're having with their letters.  I'm sure they're fixing this soon ;D)

So before I get into this.  Read this post by my fellow NA Sister Carrie Butler.  This post is inspired by her NA Alley post on NA Misconceptions.  She discusses common misconceptions about new adult fiction, and why the are indeed misconceptions about the category.  I'll wait for you to come back...

Hi again!

So in Carrie's post she discussed some common misconceptions about NA.  So I decided to tackle  a couple of these misconceptions a step further, and discuss one of my own.  So...

On to my local Barnes and Noble!

Carrie's First NA Misconception stated: 

We don't need one more category clogging up our bookshelves!

Hmm...  Are these bookstores really clogged???  Are they???

Sure is lots of space for the clearance section....

Anyone need a journal or Rosetta Stone?  Apparently, we do since there is so much space set aside for them....

World History is a bit bare at the moment.  And my goodness, does the Travel Pictorial section really need to have the books facing forward like that?  Look at all that space!

So obviously this is MY BN, but you see where I'm going with this.  There is clearly some extra space for at lease ONE little incy wincy New Adult shelf.  Just a little one.  Doesn't have to be huge.

Another of Carrie's NA Misconception stated:  

Don’t write NA. You’ll never get published.

So besides the fact that Carrie stated that myself, she herself, and fellow NA Sister Juliana Haygert have all recently had one of our new adult works contracted, I decided to hit up BN and get the skinny to see if these books really are being published and hitting the shelves.

Meet one shelf of the BN New Teen Fiction section in my local store.  

Let's see how many of these are NA.  Look closely now....

There are some there, my friends!!!!!

Oh, and those four are just the ones I knew off hand that day.  Through research, I discovered at least 4 - 6 more books on this shelf were 18-year-old characters in their final week of high school, or on summer vacation between high school and college.  Oh, and lets not even get started on all the NA I found on all the other shelves.  I would have been in there all day snapping shots.  

What this picture also shows is how hard it would be for the average reader to find those four books.  I knew they were NA because I'm a NA freak and always try to stay current on NA books, but what about the people who don't?  What about the causal Barnes and Noble shopper?  They would have no idea those books were NA by just browsing the covers.

An NA Misconception I Discovered:  

College Students Don't Read, So Why Publish These Books?  

I decided to end this post by adding my own misconception to supplement Carrie's.  Somehow this weird misconception started going around that college students don't have time to read fiction so they aren't.  Um?  Who in the world has talked to every single college student in the world and asked them that question? I know I'm in grad school and still have time to not only read a book a week, but write them as well on top of doing my school work.  The YA Rebels also discuss this misconception here.

Also, who in the world said only college students should read fiction about college life?  How many of you have read Harry Potter?  Are you in middle school and high school still?  How many of you have read Hunger Games?  Are you seventeen?  Because Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the Hunger Games, sure is so that means you're the only age who can read that book. 

So to further prove that many audiences are in fact reading these books.  Here we go!

Here we have the infamous Fifty Shades series.  Say what you want about it, but this series a selling powerhouse right now.  It dominates this NYT Best Sellers list, USA Today's Best Selling List, and also Amazon.com + BN.com sales at the top positions.  It has done so for weeks, and guest what?  It's about a COLLEGE student.  She's TWENTY-ONE, my friends.  And the material does indeed have a NA voice. 

What?  You want a read less spicy?  Here were go!

Colleen Hoover's Slammed Series has been on NYT, USA Today's, Amazon, and BN's lists as well.  And for WEEKS.  Also, great NA reads.  

Some other NA authors with NA books dominating Amazon's Top 100 Selling eBooks List right now?

Abbi Glines

Tina Reber

Jamie McGuire (NYT Best Seller for Beautiful Disaster)

Tammara Webber (NYT Best Seller for Easy)

NA self published authors who's books were doing so stinkin' well they were recently picked up by major publishing houses within the last 3 months?

Colleen Hoover (Atria)

Jamie McGuire (Atria)

Jessica Park (Amazon)

Tracey Garvis Graves (Penguin)

So obviously some one is reading these books.  May not be college students (a lot probably are ;D), but someone is reading them.  

Now, I would like to ask you:  What do you think about this NA trend?  Are you seeing the same happenings in the fiction reading world, as well?  Let me know your thoughts below!

Oh, and thanks Carrie Butler for your awesome post, which inspired this one :D

Laterz Peeps!

Winner of the "Hunt" for 50 Facebook Likes!

Well, my friends, we did it.  Not only did my author page Author Victoria H. Smith make 50 Facebook likes in a month, but we made 145!  We were just shy of 150, but that's okay.  The winner will still get to pick two indie reads!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratz, my friend!  I'll email you soon :D  Thanks to everyone else that entered, and an extra thanks for "liking" my Facebook page!

Keep your eyes out for the release date of THE CRIMSON HUNT in the next few weeks, and if you're a blogger and:  want an ARC for review, want to be a part of my blog tour, or want to be a part of my cover reveal.  Fill out this form here!

Thanks friends!

Don't forget about my Post-RWA 2012 Giveaway.  6 Books.  2 Winners.  3 Books each. :D

My New Paranormal Romance!

Happy Monday, everyone!  Well, it seems I always have one of these posts.  Whenever I start a new project I'm just so excited about it that I have to tell the world!  Well, here is that post.

With the playlist made and the scene list just about done, I start writing my new paranormal romance this week!

I'm so excited and of course I will share an excerpt when I'm either done, or part of the way through.  I can't give away too many details, but just know that it's full of action, adventure, and smexy--as my works always are ;D

This heroine is even snarkier than ever, but she's got edge.  Like a flippin' razor blade edge!  She's rough, tough and, gives her hero a run for his money.  I actually feel kind of bad for him.  D:  Poor guy.  I will do right by him by the end, though!

Anywho, to "wet your whistle" until I reveal the title and an excerpt, I'm going to provide a couple of my heroine's outfits from my newest obsession known as Polyvore.com (don't go there if you don't want to get addicted) and one of the songs from this books soundtrack.

Also, in the comments let me know what you're working on.  I'd love to hear it!

My new heroine's name is Rory.

Here are a couple of her outfits, and I'd say she's a bit edgy ;)

Rory's Looks by victoria-smith775 featuring round sunglasses

Rory's Outfit by victoria-smith775 featuring printed shirts

Rory's Theme:
Pink "Trouble" 

Post-RWA 2012 Swag Giveaway!

Well, one thing I just LOVE about these writing conferences is that authors just love giving their books away!  So, to spread the love I like to giveaway a lot of the copies that I get :D

I received many books at RWA 2012 this year, and here's my follow up giveaway post.  I'll run this one for about two weeks to give people plenty of time to enter.  So here it goes.

I have the following stack of YA books and NA books to giveaway.  Love Story by Jennifer Echols is signed.

Me with Jennifer Echols

Here's the Official List

Love Story by Jennifer Echols (signed)

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

The Taker by Alma Katsu

Fated by Alyson Noel

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

So, how this giveaway will work is that there will be two winners.  The first drawn will get their pick of three books and the second person drawn will get what's left.  The giveaway ends 8/17.

Rules:

You must follow me on GFC, Linky Followers, or Network Blogs

You must be 13 or older

You must fill out the rafflecopter below

Giveaway is US Only

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RWA 2012 VLOG with Me! and Jaycee :D

Mentions:

RWA Chicago North Conference

Hey all!  I know I promised this for yesterday's post, but I was having some audio visual issues, haha.

*Note - If the video doesn't work I'm sorry.  I'll keep toying with it this weekend and see what I can do.

So here's the VLOG I suckered Jaycee into making with me (Oh, so sorry my friend =D).  Pardon how tired we both are.  We made it LATE, LOL.

Anywho, RWA was outstanding!  I got to go to some stellar classes and learned a lot.  I wanted to share some of the pictures I took below.  It was a long week, but it was amazing.  It was so cool to meet my critique partner Jaycee and I can't wait until my next conference.

We went to Disneyland on the last day.  I am a Disney FREAK so it was too much fun and I spent way too much money.

OMG! I went totally fan girl here.  This is Jennifer Echols.  She wrote the first New Adult book I ever read.  It's called Love Story and it's a romance about a college student who lives in NYC.  

Of course, I had to pester her about New Adult and she happily listened to my babble, haha.  No but seriously, she not only is a huge supporter of NA, but fights for it, too.  She continues to write her edgy romances despite what the industry says about them not selling and her books sell like hot cakes.

I got her to sign a few of her books and guess what???  I'm doing another giveaway, baby!  Stay tuned for more details ;D

Okay so I really can't do this post without this next part.  Through the creation of NA Alley I have met so many cool and stellarific NA authors and one of which is Alysia Gray Painter.  Her fun emails brighten my day and I'm happy to call her a dear friend.  Well, she heard Jaycee and I were going to be in Cali (where she just happens to reside) and she wanted to meet up.  Unfortunately, she had to go out of town and we couldn't schedule the meet.  So imagine what I felt when Jaycee and I get a knock on the door after a long day.  There was a man with a cart of milk and cookies. 

Here's me:  "Um, we didn't order this, sir." *Laughs nervously*

Man at the door with the cart:  "Oh, miss, a guest outside of the hotel ordered this for you."

Me: *mouth agape* 

Then I remembered that Alysia kept asking me where we were staying.  I told her, but didn't really think much of it.  Well, SHE sent the milk and cookies!!!!

This woman is so sweet and you should all go out and read her awesome books.

I have copies of her first two reads and can't wait to dive in!  Thanks so much Alysia. You're a gem.  Muah!

Wilfair 

Alysia's Blog

So on a final note.  I have GREAT news for all you New Adult peeps!  It's really happening! Not only did pretty much all the editors and agents I spoke to take it, but they are rooting for it.  

Everyone, was really excited about it and I couldn't believe how supportive everyone was.  

Here is a list of some of the people I spoke to:

St. Martin's Press

Grand Central Publishing

Month 9 Books

Samhain Publishing

I will soon add this list to the NA Alley page, but go ahead and look them up.  Oh, and certain editors of St. Martin's Press take unagented manuscripts!!!! I was in shock. They are a Big Six!  They don't list that on their site, so now you know.  And Dan Weiss from St. Martin's is looking for e-serials and I heard through the grapevine that he's taken at least 3 NA authors for this, so jump on it!

Well, that's all I have for now.  I can't wait until my next conference and I'll keep you updated when I head to the next one.

Special Announcement!

Tune in Friday for a special post-RWA 2012 giveaway!  I got some major swag peeps and I've completely lost my mind.  My craziness is your gain.  I'm giving out signed and unsighed copies of YA and NA books.  So come back Friday for details :D

Don't forget about my indie giveaway. Ends 8/6. + Sign up to be a part of The Crimson Hunt cover reveal - email me at: victoria.smith775@gmail.com to take part! :)

Join me on Twitter Tonight for NaLitChat!