Released Today

Covergirls by Luke Boyd

Genre: Suspense/Transgressive

Blurb

Welcome.

Welcome to the world of the boy in the back of the class, the one whose face looks like some half-melted Halloween costume.

Welcome to seventeen skin graft surgeries in three years. Seventeen surgeries and every specialist on the East coast knowing his story, “The Windshield Kid”.

And most of all, welcome to this mirrorless funhouse—the dark twisting hallways of his mind, the doors untried and beckoning—but be careful where you enter, once opened some doors can never be closed again.

Contrary to what some might think, writing up and sending out rejection letters is not an easy thing to do. While no author wants to receive a rejection letter it is a part of this business. When it comes to rejection letters there are essentially two types, the standard R where the author is left scratching their head as to what is wrong with their story to warrant receiving the R. Then there is the R followed with a few reasons as to why their story is being rejected.

When it comes to receiving the detailed rejection letter, as an author, how detailed and honest do you want the letter to be? There are many manuscripts that have passed my way that are fantastic but need a little work. Whether it’s fixing a plot issue, increasing the sexual tension, or turning a winey heroine into a strong one the readers will want to read. If I like the storyline all those little things can be fixed during the editing process. If there is a lot I will send you a letter to revise and re-submit along with a detailed explanation of what the issues are.

However, there are instances when a submission comes in where it’s hard to make it through the first chapter, let alone having to sit through and read the entire book. Instances where there is so much wrong with the plot and characters that fixing it is not an option. This is when you take the entire book and re-write it starting at chapter one. If this was your book, would you want the detailed explanation as to why your book is being rejected or would you rather receive the standard R, thanks but no thanks?

How detailed an explanation, if any, do you want?

Today is the day to post all the contest winners. Everyone who has won a prize from our grand opening contests has already been notified by email. Winners are listed below. I have excluded their last names for confidentiality reasons.

Contests and Prizes

Statue of Isis for answering our contest question for Kindred - the winner is Melissa

Ice Cream and Chocolate Lovers Cookbooks for answering our contest question for The Kandy Shoppe - the winner is Muriel

(I asked Muriel to send me her favorite recipes and I will post them here on the blog when she does).

Leather Writing Journal for answering our contest question for Passion’s Tapestry is Jennifer

Those were are 3 main contest prizes. Congratulations to our winners.

A second group of prizes was autographed copies of each of the books. I had 4 of the winners thank me but told me to use their copies for other contests and prizes. So thank you to Shawna, Michelle, Taryn, and Melissa for donating back your copy. The remainder of the copies go to Jennifer, Jennifer (yes they are different people), Steven, Shirley, Debbie, Dianne, Lisa, Aditya, Kari, Tanya, and Sarah.

The Header was won by Melissa but she is not a writer nor does she know any. This is copied and pasted from her email with her permission. “Thank you very much for picking my name for the web site header. I am not a writer and I don’t know any writers so if one of your authors would like it please give it to them.” So if you are a romance or erotica website and would like a new header you can send me an email to abby@bladepublishing.org. First one who requests it gets it.

The signature tag that can be used in forums, myspace, blogs, ect. now has the name Terri on it, congratulations Terri.

Ten names were also drawn for a $5.00 blade gift certificate. The gift certificates have been emailed to the winners with an expiry date of 1 year. The winners are Meagan, Jennifer, Jacob, Silent Bill (posted on request of the winner), Jackie, Shirley, Sarah, Chelsea, Christine, and Dianne. Congratulations to all the winners.

Thank you to all who purchased books in the month of June and entered our contests.

The Blade staff and authors send out a congratulations to all our winners.

~Abby

Browsing reader blogs and forums you are able to get an idea what the readers would like when it comes to the epublishing industry. A frequent comment that is made is that in a bookstore you can read a short bit from the first few chapters but since most epublishers only put up a small snippet for an excerpt on their website, potential book buyers can’t do that. That is something I never thought of while putting up Blade’s first few book excerpts and I am one of those book buyers who likes to skim a bit before I buy.

So in light of the comments, which totally make sense, I have changed the way we will post book excerpts from now on. If you click on any one of the excerpts now on our website you will be given a short excerpt from chapter one, which then up in the top right corner you can click on a link that will take you to an excerpt of chapter two, and so on, all the way to chapter 4. Hopefully snippets of the first 4 chapters are enough for you to get a feel for the authors writing and whether or not it’s a story you would like to continue reading.

I appreciate the reader blogs, and the information they put forth so that publisher’s like myself are able to implement the things the readers would like to see. I hope you all enjoy the new excerpts for our current books. There are many more to come.

 ~Abby

I was approached with an opportunity a few days ago that I could not turn down. Cover model and actor Michael Elan has founded a non-profit organization called It’s Meow or Never, a rescue and sanctuary for animals. Blade will be supporting Michael’s organization through a series we have named, “PAWS For Thought.” Michael is thrilled with the project and will be gracing our debut covers.    

PAWS For Thought Submission Call  

Do you find it hard to resist a man or woman who loves animals? If so then keep reading.  

We are looking for stories where the hero or heroine is some how involved in the daily care or rescue of animals.  We are open to any story ideas, from a fireman whose popularity exceeds no other when it comes to cat rescue, to a vet who takes care of un-identified paranormal creatures.  

There is no requirement of heat level nor does there have to be a happily ever after. If you write young adult and have a story in mind then we would love to read it. Young Adult acceptances will go on our sister site, Midnight Press, which is currently under development.  

Stories should be between 30,000 and 35,000 words.  

The first PAWS For Thought novels will be published in the first part of 2009, so in order to be considered for one of the debut releases, submissions should be received no later than November 1, 2008. Once royalties are paid the remainder will go to charity, unless of course the author chooses to donate his/her royalty as well. That will be up to the individual authors.

We are very excited about this new charity project and working with Michael to create a safe haven for the animals they rescue.

*Permission to forward granted*

~Abby