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Working on the Book Blurb for Kill Me

With release day for Kill Me quickly ticking away, I’ve been hard at work getting everything ready, and that (sadly) includes the blurb for the book. If you’ve never tried to write one of these, consider yourself lucky. It’s like trying to boil down seventy-thousand words into under fifty words, while trying to be coherent, eye-catching and the most important criteria– accurate.

I don’t know how many times I came up with something catchy only to realize it didn’t fit the darn book. And the ones the were true to the story were big old snooze-fests. After hours at this (more like days really) I finally think I’ve gotten to a good place. I may still tweak the blurb a little more before the official release of Kill Me, but for now it gives me something to query book reviewers with :-)

So, what do you think?

Looking back, it was the stupid violin’s fault. It called to me from down the aisle, brought me to Bette’s rare instrument collection and set everything in motion.  Before that, I was normal—I cooked, cleaned and brought home every bit of the bacon. Sure, I was stressed over bills (while my unemployed husband worried-not) but I was good at my job and hopeful that it would pay off soon. I thought I had life figured out, but I had everything so completely wrong that it’s almost comical. Well, for me it wasn’t very funny, but I could see how someone else would be amused at my misguided, naïve outlook on life. I know better now, that’s for sure. Now the husband is a non-issue, my freakish talents are not of the domestic variety, and being a good mother just became a whole lot tougher. Being kind of undead has a way of mucking things up like that.

Kill Me, the debut novel from author Alex Owens, is a quirky paranormal fantasy complete with music, magic, fangs and freaks. Be forewarned, this is not your daughter’s paranormal.

Claire, a thirty-something marketing Rep, attends a music conference with the hopes that her hard work will gain her a badly needed raise. Her plans are derailed when she meets a stunning Italian woman, Bette and the blood red violin that can only be played by the supernaturally gifted. And Bette thinks that Claire is just the woman to play it. But before she can even begin to process her unusual attraction to Bette or her own newly-materialized talents, Claire is pulled into a hidden world of seduction, secrets and things best left in folklore. Tied to darkness by blood and power, Claire must harness her abilities and take control of her life, before others take the control for themselves. 

Preparing for The Release of Kill Me, a Blood Chord Novel

When my book formatting guru told me I’d have to wait 2-3 weeks to get back the finished digital and print files, I cringed. That’s forever, I thought. I want to release it now!

Of course, while I’m ankle deep in organizing book reviews, a blog tour, giveaways and anything else that will help this novel make a big splash out of the gate, I am oh-so-grateful that the formatting is taking a few weeks. I’m honestly thinking about telling her to take her time with it.

I kid. Sort of. I am super-excited to get this novel birthed already. But I’m swamped with the preparations. Not to mention coordinating everything.

Timing is important you see. The Kindle version only gets 30 days on the New Releases list. So I’ve got a very short window to garner reviews and generate an overall buzz before the novel starts sliding in the ranks. Reviews need to come blitzkreig-style in the first few weeks. Aside from book bloggers, this means I have to create some ads and get placement on popular book sites. Here’s an example I just whipped up a few minutes ago.

During that time, I am also putting together a virtual book tour, where multiple book-centric websites will host me or the novel in one way or another. Author interviews, fictional character interviews, essays, book and swag giveaways (ack! I forgot to design and order my swag. crud) and the like. This means I have a lot of non-fiction writing to do in the next little bit. And organizing, because I don’t want all coverage to occur on the same day. I’m more interested in spreading the exposure out over a few weeks, since I think that will help the book sustain rank better for the long term.

Speaking of blog tours, what do you think of my little banner below? Do you love it? I do :-)

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