The Announcement

In case you missed it the other day on Twitter (btw, if you don't follow me yet, you should. I'm always there! Haha!), I made a fairly big, exciting announcement to my followers.


Now I'm here to share it with you wonderful lovelies. ;)




*drum roll*


On June 1st, my novel will be published and on the market. It will be available for online order in both print and e-book format through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as other retailers.


This is a self-published novel admittedly. I will be doing the marketing entirely myself, but as I've told many friends through the years: what truly matters to me is that I'm doing what I love and it's something I've wanted since childhood. I'm excited for this book's release and I hope you all will be too as June approaches!


So, what is this book? Of course I'm not going to leave you entirely in the dark! And funny I should mention "dark"...


Darkness Comes This Way


Darkness Comes This Way is a Paranormal/Urban Fantasy generally geared toward older YA and has an adult cross-over appeal. It is the first book to a high-action trilogy with some dark elements, focusing on vampires and fallen angels, war, betrayal, and light romance.
Rogues are disgusting, rabid vampires that Zarah has been trained to destroy. The ironic thing is, she used to be one.


Zarah Duncan stalks the streets nightly, hunting and destroying as many Rogues as she can. It’s a part of her job as a Guardian. But Zarah has a haunting past: memories of her time as Rogue once not too long ago herself, and it torments her. Until her, no one else has cured before. She’s been labeled a miracle. Yet, Zarah gets the awful feeling there’s more to it than just a magical come-back. Secrets are being kept from her. Maybe her boss, Nathanial, knows? Or maybe that new partner, Draven Kinsley, she’s been teamed up with does? Everything makes her head spin. To make matters worse, her Rogue brother has to show up. And he brings even more secrets and shocking announcements. What Zarah learns from him rocks her entire world upside down. She not only begins to question who and what she is anymore, but it can possibly change the Vampire race forever. Someone else knows too…and they’ll do anything to get her special blood--spelling disaster for the humans that Guardians have secretly been protecting for decades.


******

Look for Darkness Comes This Way (author: Pixie Lynn Whitfield) on June 1st!

Cover to be revealed by the start of May!

If you would like to talk about an early review copy, please leave a comment with your email address--or email me--and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. :) Thank you!

I look forward to the fun in the near future!

Publishing

So, to self-publish or go with the traditional approach? That seems to be the question a lot of aspiring authors who are trying to break into print are asking themselves nowadays.

Let's look at both of the options here.

Self-publishing:

1. Market yourself

2. No rejections

3. Set your own royalties (in most cases)

4. Oftentimes sold through major online retailers still, like Amazon

5. Design your own cover work

6. No agent/editor fees (you're doing everything YOURSELF)

7. And lastly, you retain all of your rights to your work.

Traditional approach (sending queries to major agents/publishers):

1. You still market yourself in most cases, but have the help of the agent/publisher as well.

2. Chances of a lot of rejections before acceptance- so there could be quite the waiting period before you are actually ever published, if published.

3. The publisher sets your royalities. Chance of a sign-on bonus as well.

4. Sold in stores and online chains.

5. Agent and editor fees.

6. You may get some say in the design work, but there's a design team so usually your cover and book is designed for you and may not be to your liking.

7. You lose some rights to your work as you are in a contract with the publisher.

I honestly do not have a problem with either form of publishing. In fact, I would even go as far as advising to use BOTH options. There's no harm in it. Self-publishing can be very successful nowadays with all of the social networking (and sites like GoodReads) but at the same time, an aspiring author who also wants to break into the major publishing world could look into the traditional approach- perhaps after even using self-publishing as a form of experience.

What do you think? Would you agree or disagree?

~The Bookaholic