WWoW!: @dochappycamper Shows You How to Use Static Pages to Your Advantage #blogging #MyWANA

Welcome to Tammy's Tidbits here at Writer's Words of Wisdom and my ongoing series on how to tailor your website/blog to your advantage.

This week I thought I'd focus on using static pages for more than just a list of your favorite links or your book covers. In May of this year, I participated in a blog hop hosted by the Four Seduced Muses. The Caliente Blog Hop ran from May 6th through May 10th. That's Monday through Friday. Five days where my continuous blogs would be "occupied" daily for the hop, OR I could still have my regular features on all of them AND still have a dedicated spot where folks who are only interested in the hop could go without having to wade through five or six days worth of posts. This was where I used the static pages to my advantage...and to yours.

Depending on what blog platform/host you use, the steps to set up the pages can be a little different than what I'm going to show you how to do today. Since I use both Wordpress and Blogger, those will be what I focus on in this post.

My main website and blog is Behind Closed Doors. It's on the free wordpress.com server but I purchased my domain name so the official URL is www.authortammydenningsmaggy.com.  The following description and photos will apply to this particular blog. If you go to the site, you will be taken to my landing page, or HOME. I made this static page my website. There you can see the navigating tabs at the top where you can find the Blog, My Poetry, my other sister blogs, guidelines, etc. It's in that menu I put the tab for visitors to find the Caliente Blog Hop page.

To get started in wordpress, click on DASHBOARD, then APPEARANCE, then PAGES, then ADD NEW.

Now you get a template page very similar to what you would normally see when writing a general post for your blog. Set it up as you desire even with a scheduled date and time for it to go live. You can post it immediately if you wish, but for my purposes, I made it the first day of the hop.

Now go to DASHBOARD and then MENU. You'll see a page like the following.

Do you see the boxes next to the pages there in the middle of the screen shot? Those are where you can check off to choose what pages you wish to include in the menu. You can have many pages set up and not easily accessed with the menu tabs. These stay "hidden" until you provide the link for folks to access them. I did that with my Now and Forever Series tab. There you will find blurbs of my books and also links to the first chapter of each one. You can only access the first chapter pages by that link.

Now in the right column of the screen shot above, you see the list of items in my menu that will appear at the top of the Behind Closed Doors website/blog. I can move the order around with the idea of giving the Caliente Blog Hop tab greater visibility. I will have it at the end, so it will show up as the last tab and easily accessible. Now at any point during the blog hop, people can visit that page simply by clicking on the tab in the menu at the top. If they wish, they can also tour around my site and check out the other guests I'll have on my blog during the hop.

For Blogger, the steps are a little different but a bit easier than with Wordpress. Click on DESIGN at the top right of your blog, then PAGES, then ADD NEW.

Go ahead and create the page the way you want it to look. The photo above is taken from my alter ego Stephanie Ryan's blog. She'd participated in the Caliente Blog Hop too. ;-)

After you have the page the way you want it, go ahead and publish it. Don't worry, you'll be able to change the status of it in a moment.

See how Stephanie's Caliente Hop page is listed in the page menu? Here is where you can change the status of the page by reverting it to draft. That way it keeps it "hidden" until you're ready for it to go live. You will have to go in there and publish it manually as blogger doesn't have a way to schedule the pages at specific dates and times like Wordpress does. Here's what the dashboard looks like when you revert the page to draft.

Why have a separate static page in order to participate in blog hops? 

Well, I used to do a new post every single day of the hop I was participating in and found that the first day or two got the best response, but then only a few folks came back daily. So I thought I would take that to heart, and just have one dedicated page to the hop and go about my regular blog business at the same time. Now that I have three pen names to manage, this is the best option for me. I can enjoy the hops and continue to promote myself, my pen names and fellow authors.  Also if you end up participating in hops that overlap or occur at the same time, this allows you to have a separate page for each one and still be able to keep the visitors and their contest entries separate from each other.

So go on. Set up pages for blog hops, your own contests, or even a store to sell your books. That's my next project for the Sassy Vixen Publishing website! Enjoy!


Until next time...
~Tammy

#Wwow - Legal Mumbo-Jumbo for Writers

So, you received a contract between six to ten pages long. What does it all mean? How do you read it all? How do you decipher all the information? All publishers have their own agreement or contract for their authors. Some are negotiable and others aren't. However, most have the same terms. What do all the terms mean? Well, I've found several resources online to help you.

Romance University: Holly Root on Negotiating Contracts
PublishLawyer: Quick Guide to Book Contract Trouble Spots
PublishLawyer: Parts of a Contract
Publishing Agreement Checklist
Pub Law: Negotiating Terms


And last but not least, follow the hashtag #publaw each week on Twitter for info from @SusanSpann.

Melinda Dozier is the author of several contemporary romance novels with Crimson Romance and Swoon Romance. You can find her online at www.melindadozier.com

#WWoW!: Creating The Blog Navigation Bar that Suites Your Needs #amwriting #MyWANA

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Tammy's Tidbits here at Writer's Words of Wisdom. Today is the third installment in my creating your own blog series.  This week I'm covering setting up and personalizing your blogs. In fact, I'll be travelling down this road for the next couple weeks and hopefully will cover some of the topics people have been asking me about over the last few months.

I've had more than a few requests to discuss a bit about setting up the layout of my blogs. Mainly, folks want to know how I did it. Well, there really isn't a right or wrong way to go about doing it. All of my blogs are fluid—constant works in progress. I'm always fiddling with the layouts and order of things to get all of them to be appealing to the eye. I like to change up the color schemes too. Right now, I'm only working with the free themes offered through Blogger and Wordpress so some of the layouts are restricted by the specific themes that I choose to work with at the time. This is most evident with Wordpress. The fonts, colors and layouts are all locked in with their free themes. However, I can choose at anytime to upgrade and pay to customize them. That's a future goal for me.

Blogger on the other hand does give you a lot more options to customize your themes. You can change the font's with each post, the time stamps, what color you want your links to be in the posts, what color or fonts to use for your blog title and subtitles. After you've chosen a theme, then you can alter the design by clicking on the "DESIGN" tab at the top of your blog. Go ahead and do that now. You will see a page that looks similar to this

Clicking on the "TEMPLATE" option on the menu on the left side will show the "CUSTOMIZE" button. Click on that to take you to the next step.

As you can see, I'm using this blog to help demonstrate what to do here. Of course your own blog won't have the same colors and layout as mine...or it could if you chose the same theme. LOL   On the left side you will see another menu list. Click on the last option "ADVANCED." This will take you to the window where you can change fonts sizes, colors and everything to give your page the look you wish to have. Here's what mine looks like at that step.

Notice the area I drew a circle around? That is the list of options you get to control. When you click on each one, the choices of fonts and colors open up for you on the right. Currently it's showing what I can do for my page text. Blogger gives you suggestions of what colors will go with your chosen theme or you can go completely in another direction. It's up to you. Go ahead and play around with all of the spots you wish to customize. Make sure you save your arrangements before you change screens to view the blog. If you don't like how it looks, or a font color isn't showing up the way you want it to, then change it.

Once you've played around with the theme and all it has to offer you, I'd like to touch on one more thing before I go for the week. This is how to set up your navigation tabs. Most folks have them at the top, like I have but some people like them as a side bar. It's up to you.

How do you get to add tabs? Well, those are called "PAGES." These can actually be stand alone/static pages you create or links to different blogs or websites. Click on "DESIGN" at the top of your blog again and then pick the "PAGES" option on the left side. It should take you to a page that looks like this.

 I've added a few notes in the photo above to let you know what each section does. First thing, just add the links and pages in any order. You can change that up at any point by clicking on the little light teal/blue colored shaded area of each entry and arranging them in the order you wish. This is just like on the layout page. We'll get to setting up the layout on another day.  For now, let's just concentrate on how you want your navigation tab bar to look like. What links do you want to put there?  One very important one would be  to your website if you have one.  What you put there is all up to you. There really aren't any rules here.

I hope this week's mini seminar was helpful. If you have any questions at all, or would like to see how to so do something else, let me know. I stuck with Blogger for this post, because it does have so many different ways to change things up and still for free. For those of us just starting out, free is definitely an added BONUS!

Make sure you come back next Wednesday when I talk more about creating static pages and how to use them for hops, promotions and keeping your first chapters available only to those who click on the links you provide. Intrigued? Come back next week!

~Tammy

#NaNoWriMo Steps for Success

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If you are, to be on track, you should have hit your half-way point (25,000 words) by now. BUT that's only if you are writing steady. Some of us write more sporadically, each day a varying word count. It's okay if you're behind - maybe you plan to pull out all the stops during the second half of the month. You have two more weekends and plenty more time so DO NOT QUIT.

To get your "NaNo Winner" badge, you have to hit 50,000 words BUT to feel proud of your accomplishment and to have a product worth publishing, all you have to do is WRITE - regardless of your word count at the end of the month.

If you're like me though (or any bit competitive) you want to WIN! I first participated in 2012, completed the 52,000 words and went on to publish the book "HOLD MY HAND" in April 2013. My goal is to do the same this year. So, here's what's worked for me in the past and some tips that might help you...

Write Every Day.

Even if you don't write a lot one day, always write something. And if you don't feel like it, do it anyway. Writing leads to writing. Once you get started, sometimes the words begin flowing out of nowhere. Write every day.

Create Milestone Goals.

50,000 is a big number. Create milestones -5,000-10,000-15,000-25,000- made up of smaller goals that you can celebrate along the way. It's also less overwhelming to think of the month in stages. Try having weekly goals.

Have a Writing Buddy.

Writing is a solitary venture which sometimes makes it hard to be accountable. Make friends on NaNoWriMo through Writing Buddies, an on-line networking service as part of NaNo. You can message with them to share your goals and get advice and encouragement. Or there might already be an author you know also doing it - connect once a day to compare progress.

Track Your Progress.

Use the NaNoWriMo website to keep track of your word count. It's motivating to watch the count climb throughout the month. You'll see how even just a little a day adds to your total word count. It's a great affirmation!

I'm hovering at 29,000 words right now. And I promise that I'm speaking from personal experience because I'm using these tips I suggested to you. If you want to look me up, I'm happy to be your buddy!
Here's a snippet from my NaNo Project 2013 "Ivy Intertwined". It's my first venture into New Adult Romance and I'm having fun with it. This is in it's rawest form with no editing, proofing or polishing. Enjoy at your own risk! 

Ivy hesitantly steps off the ferry and gazes around, careful to keep her eyes averted from those around her. She might be looking for someone but she might also be hiding from someone. To her relief, nobody approaches her and she recognizes no one. An older man passes her by. A girl about her age runs to meet the handsome man who shared her view of the ocean on the ferry trip across the water.
To the common observer, Ivy appears untouched by the happy people around her but that’s not true. She’s touched. Inside. It’s there, where she’s nearly hollowed out at the same time growing more full with life. A new life that meant giving up an old life she adored. An exchange-one loss for another loss-that will be made even in the end when Ivy will find herself alone.
She snatches up her bag that the crew tossed off the boat into the pile of suitcases accompanying the passengers to the island and begins a pace inward towards town. She carries just one bag, large enough only for an overnight trip. It’s not nearly enough but it was all she could manage. Ivy just needed to escape.
Passing through town quickly, she doesn’t stop to look in the shops or seem to notice the string of people stopping to rent mopeds. Soon enough the island will be flooded with tourists buzzing along the quiet country roads, creating a stir in the willows. By then, Ivy will be tucked away in a place that feels more like home than any place she knows. Needing none of these things tourists need, she looks out past the small town and sets her eyes on the open land ahead. In the distance, she sees a small gray house and smiles.
As she gets closer, the small gray house opens its door to her.  Her grandmother waves as Ivy walks up the path to the old house.

If you're participating in NaNoWriMo and would like to share a snippet of your project, please do so in the comments. Keep it under 500 words so we can read one another's excerpts without taking too much time away from our own WRITING!

Now, get back to it. Go Write.

Paloma

#WWoW!: Finding Your Blogger Niche #MyWANA

Welcome back once again to Tammy's Tidbits here at Writer's Words of Wisdom. Today is the second installment in my series on creating your own blog. Since this is a Writer's Words of Wisdom post, I'll only talk about blogging as it relates to writers. Even though I write erotica and erotic romance, these tips apply to authors in all genres.

Last week, I asked my alter ego, Stephanie Ryan to share her post on deciding about having a blog, website or a combination of both under one domain. She talked about two of the most popular blogging sites and the advantages of using each one. Of course there were disadvantages for each too, but ultimately it came down to what was the easiest format for her to work on. Hopefully her article helped you to decide and pick one as well. This week I want to touch on how you go about creating your individual blog to help get yourself noticed in the vast world we call The Blogosphere.

I've got my hosting site. Now what do I do?

Congratulations! Now that you've made your choice, it's time to come up with a way to make your little blog stand out and belong to YOU. For that, you need a catchy title and tagline. These are not the same the domain name/URL. Let me explain that just a little bit before we go on. Your domain name will be what folks type into the search engines to find you. As an author, the best kind of domain name or URL to have is one that has your pen name in at least part of it...or some variation of it. The domain name for my Behind Closed Doors website/blog is authortammydenningsmaggy.com and the one for my general topic blog is tammydenningsmaggy.blogspot.com.  Both of them have my pen name in the URL and therefore both linked to me.  

Not Enough Time in the Day was created to share all parts of my life as a veterinarian, poet and author of erotic romance. Juggling an evil day job as a veterinarian, life as a newlywed, running a household and finding time to write can be a challenge and every single day I wish there was more hours for me to get things done.  So the title and tagline for that blog was born. Here are a few other blogs that I enjoy reading and following myself. Notice their creative titles and taglines.

1. Tales from the Snark Side belongs to author Tymber Dalton and her various pen names.
2. Romance Beckons...The Erotic Writings of Author Paloma Beck and Friends
3. Calipe's Writing Tablet...The Musings of Romance Author Rose Anderson
4. Kisses, Caresses, and Whispers in the Night  owned by romantic suspense author Amber Lea Easton
5. Sealed With a Kiss Robin Badillo's blog

Take a look at some of those blogs and see how they've set them up. Are there features present that appeal to you? This is where you have to decide what you want your own blog go accomplish. Is it only going to be used to showcase posts written by yourself or will you want guest to stop in to discuss various topics? Is your blog going to be about books you've read (a review blog) or all about books you've written yourself? Will you introduce new authors to your followers or keep every post all about you, your thoughts and opinions about various topics?

Do you see where I"m going with this? The sky really is the limit with what you can write about, but it may be best to avoid topics such as religion and politics. Those tend to get really heated and downright messy. Trust me. There are more than enough topics to cover that can be just as controversial. (wink wink). I've been known to jump on that soap box from time to time. Did you catch my diatribe on avoiding the diva syndrome? How about my alter ego Lia Michaels and her discussion of the differences between sensual romance, erotica, erotic romance and porn? No? Here's the link for that one too. ;)  Both of those blogs were a result of some heated discussions I had with some fellow authors. Those topics are a bit controversial and they do make great blogs. 

How do I incorporate guests bloggers? 

Why not choose specific days to be set aside for guests? You can also go another step further by making those days center around a specific theme. For my blogs, I found that allowing guests on any day of the week, created way too much work for me setting up all the spots. I was left with very little time left to work on my own posts, poetry and other WIPs. I had to find balance so I took control. I decided to only have guests three days a week. I had Oh My! Mondays, Thursday Thirteen and Saturday Spotlight. Those three eventually evolved into adding five more features Tammy's Tidbits, Throwback Thursdays, Flashback Fridays, Memoirs of a Forty Something Fat Chick and Furbaby Fridays with Dr. Tammy.  Others to consider could be Tantilizing or Titillating Tuesdays, Sinfully Sassy Sundays with The Vixen (mine on Four Seduced Muses), Wanton Wednesdays, Slippery Saturdays...the list can go on and on. Amber Lea Easton has Open Mic Mondays to showcase guests. Another spot I've seen another author use is Friday Firsts showcasing the opening lines of books her guests wish to promote. 

Having the specific days enables you to have continuity and gives something for your followers to look forward to each week. Can you slip in different posts in there? Hell yes! It's your blog. Do with it what you will, but try to keep it consistent.  You don't wish to include adult topics, then don't. You can keep your "place" as squeaky clean as you wish or as down and dirty as you can get. Do you want to have a no hold's barred approach and feature topics and guests that are considered more risque or taboo? Go for it! I did. Check out Four Seduced Muses and The House of Taboo.  Do you wish for something in between the sweet and taboo? Check out Stephanie Ryan's Through Stephanie's Eyes. She's just getting started but having a lot of fun! 

How do I make my blog stand out? Do I need a gimmick?

I'm learning about this along the way too and the answer I've found is a resounding YES! For my Behind Closed Doors blog, people are drawn to my poetry in the largest numbers. All of my blogs are popular when I participate in blog hops because of the prize packages I put together for each one. This blog is now a hit with the tips for writers and for the tales of my life as a veterinarian. Sassy Vixen Publishing is building a reputation as a new publisher and showcasing authors of all adult genres. The House of Taboo's specialty is the Saturday Spotlight feature. Lia has turned the blog into an actual night club sort of feel, having the guests on the center stage for their interviews. She then surprises them with having their favorite actor or actress "read" the steamy excerpt from the book the guest is promoting.  The feature has become so popular, "we've" decided to include an actual nightclub called The House of Taboo in a shared world series being created by Sassy Vixen authors and many others.   What started out as a fun way to present an interview, turned into an actual character in a romance novel series. Who knew? LOL

So go on. Think about your goals and the persona you wish to present to the Blogosphere and the entire online community. Once you have those basic details, sign up for your blog with the domain name you wish to have in that URL, the eye catching title and tag line to draw in those followers, and add the features you wish to have shown on the site. Eventually you can expand your blog to include your website, your favorite links, you books and book trailers, inspirational photos...anything you wish to make the space all your own.

Above all, have fun and GET BLOGGING!!!

Until next time

~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website
Tammy's Blog
Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 
Sassy Vixen Publishing
Friend Tammy on Facebook
Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page
Friend Tammy on Goodreads
Friend Tammy on Pinterest
Follow Tammy on Twitter
Find Tammy's Videos on Youtube


If you'd like to share your experiences in the publishing world, please contact us about setting up a guest appearance. We'd love to hear from you!

#Wwow - Top 15 Overused Words in a Manuscript #wordchoice #fillerwords #editing #amediting

Choosing Words that Make Your Writing a Masterpiece

How do you choose the best words for your writing? Do you write and then go back to edit the words? Are you one of those brilliant writers who has a dictionary/thesaurus embedded in your brain and the right word comes when summoned?

As I work on my newest WIP, I can tell when I am having a bad day. I use and reuse the same words or phrases all the time. Here are my favorites this week:

Come on!

Why all my characters are saying this is beyond me!

smiled 

I promise to try not to use this anymore as a tag. My characters are just happy!

I was just saying...

I don't even know where or why this came about.

Generally, most authors keep a list of overused, passive or filler words to run through their manuscripts as they do final edits/revisions. To tighten your writing, search for the following words: 

1. very
2. -ing words
3. just
4. really
5. simply
6. started to
7. began to
8. all adverbs
9. rather
10. feel/felt
11. saw
12. realize
13. heard
14. was/were
15. that

Even better, try these free online tools to help tighten your writing:

Writer's Diet Test: http://www.writersdiet.com/wasteline.php

Pro Writing Aid: http://prowritingaid.com/en/Analysis/Editor#

Now, for a bit of fun for those of you with a sense of humor. In honor of WORD CHOICE, check out this funny commercial (WARNING: Language Advisory)

I'd say those word choices are selective! 

How about you? What are your favorite words when you write? Which words have you overused? 

Melinda Dozier is the author of Love and Other Games: Trouble with Gold and Breaking the Rules available from Swoon Romance and Crimson Romance.

#WWoW!: #Blog, Website, or Hybrid? What's an Author to Do? #MyWANA

Welcome to this week's edition of Tammy's Tidbits. I've had a few topics I wanted to touch upon over the next few weeks, but another has had to be brought to the top of the list. On previous blogs I covered how to avoid the diva syndrome. In that article I mentioned one particular diva author who didn't know what a blog was, how it was used to promote an author's work, or what they needed to do in order to be a guest on another's blog. For most of you visiting here, this topic may seem very basic, but there are many more authors out there who haven't got a clue what a blog is let alone how to create one.

I was one of those people when I first published in 2011. I found out very quickly I was behind the rest of the pack. Luckily, the wonderful veteran authors with my publisher pointed me in the right direction and I haven't looked back ever since. With three pen names, I now have or share two adult website/blogs, two adult websites, two adult blogs, two PG rated blogs(including this one), one PG rated website/blog, and one book review blog.  That's right.ten distinct sites. Seven of them I own the domain names and more will soon follow.

What's the difference between all of them? What makes a blog a blog and not a website or vise versa? I thought it would be a great idea to repost a blog article my alter ego Stephanie Ryan did not too long ago on this very subject. She isn't published yet, but is getting a jump start on her online presence so that when she does put out her first mainstream romantic fiction, folks will already recognize her name.  (Yeah, I've learned a few things by the third pen name! LOL) The following was of course on her own blog, so the references made in the article apply to Through Stephanie's Eyes.

Blog, Website, or Hybrid? What's an Author to Do?

Being relatively new to the publishing game, I've come across many discussions about creating a separate website from my blog. Now these talks are between other authors mind you so I thought I would put the question out there to them.

What's the difference between the two?

Silence...yep. That's what I got. Oh I got great advice that I should have both and that a website would make me appear more professional than a blog, but not one of them told me WHY this is so and what's the difference between the two. Well, I went searching with good old Dr. Google (to borrow the term from my veterinarian alter ego Tammy) to see what I could come up with. Guess what? Most of the folks out there can't answer that question either!

So what's a girl to do?

Don't freak out! I did find a few great articles that put it all into perspective. Jeff Korhan wrote a very concise and easy to understand article about it HERE.  For those of you who already know the difference between the two, please bear with me as I go through this for those of us who were confused.  A blog is actually a specific type of website (shocker I know!) that has content that changes on a regular basis. A blog's home page will have the most recent post at the top followed by the older ones. Think of it as an online magazine.  An actual website can be looked of as a storefront. It's selling a product (you as an author and your work) or service. The content is dedicated to that product you're presenting for purchase. Of course you can manually update the pages of your website, but they don't update on a continual basis with each new post like a blog would.  Here's another article comparing the two and their basic features. Oh what the hell, here's another one for those of you who need just a bit more convincing.

Still confused? Don't be!

After reading the articles, I've decided the best option for me is to have a combination of the two like Tammy has with Behind Closed Doors. When you click on that link, you are taken to her static "About Me" page on Wordpress.com.  Yes, she's allowed comments there, but for the most part, the information is static showcasing her book covers, information about her, a few banners, and of course the tabs at the top will take you to one of her blogs, her poetry, guest author guidelines, etc.  With Wordpress it was easy to do that and set up another page as the blog for Behind Closed Doors. I won't get into all of that here, but as a whole all of my alter egos like Blogger better. Why? It's a bit more user friendly when it comes to the fonts, colors and basic set up when dealing with the free services. Wordpress has specific fonts for each free template. Of course you can purchase more and custom design your own, but for today's discussion, I'm sticking to the freebies.

So how can I set up my "website" here with Blogger and connect it to the blog? Easy! I'll make it a static page. Right now it's just my About Me section but as I get published, I'll add more content. I may add it to that tab or even...get this...start up ANOTHER page to showcase my titles with their buy links.  Okay, I'm being a smart ass here, but you get the point. I've freaked myself out for far too long thinking I had to get a separate website and keep it separate from my blog in order to appear more professional to readers and others in the publishing world.  Why? Because someone else said I HAD to that's why.

Isn't the whole point of having an online presence is to be noticed? If you start doing everything according to some cookie cutter template like everyone else, how will you stand out? How will you attract those folks just randomly searching the Internet to first stop in and look at your site and then STAY there, maybe even follow you for future updates and posts?

I'm going to follow my own drummer here and make my blog/website combination as professional and welcoming as possible. I want this to be a spot where my friends, fans, fellow authors and the curious to stop in and relax checking out what's here on the pages. Hopefully they'll all like what they see and keep coming back. That's the sort of thing that keeps me going back to my favorite blogs.  How about you?

~Steph (aka Tammy)

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website
Tammy's Blog
Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 
Sassy Vixen Publishing
Friend Tammy on Facebook
Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page
Friend Tammy on Goodreads
Friend Tammy on Pinterest
Follow Tammy on Twitter
Find Tammy's Videos on Youtube


If you'd like to share your experiences in the publishing world, please contact us about setting up a guest appearance. We'd love to hear from you!

#WWoW! Authors join Read Tuesday!

Here's an opportunity for authors to promote their books during the holiday season... READ TUESDAY.

It'll be a huge day like Black Friday, but for buying and gifting books at amazing sale prices.

In 2013, the date for Read Tuesday will be Tuesday, December 10.

It's SIMPLE TO SIGN UP and participate. In fact, I've already done it! My self-published books will be part of this HUGE HOLIDAY SALES EVENT!

THE ORIGIN OF READ TUESDAY

*taken directly from the READ TUESDAY Website.*

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there are great discounts on electronics, tools, toys, and clothes, for example, but very few books seem to be discounted more than usual. There are millions of books to choose from. Most tend to remain at ordinary prices during these big sales events.

Read Tuesday is a special event dedicated to big book savings. Thousands of books will be on sale on Read Tuesday. This is a great opportunity for readers to stock up on books from their favorite participating authors and publishers.

Discounted books also make great gifts for the holidays. It’s easy to gift e-books, returns are not a problem with most retailers, the gift is delivered instantly (but you can schedule when to have it delivered), and there are no shipping and handling charges. Share the gift of reading.

Read Tuesday is also a great opportunity for authors, small publishers, and booksellers to benefit from a huge holiday sale event. Books are featured in their exclusive catalog once you sign up for the event.

FOLLOW READ TUESDAY ON TWITTER.

FOLLOW THE READ TUESDAY BLOG.

So, with the countdown beginning to the holiday season, here's a chance for authors to promote our books to shoppers. This event is going to be huge with a large marketing campaign that will ensure maximum exposure. Sign up. Join the hundreds of other authors participating already.

Then, get back to work... and Keep Writing!

Paloma