Category Archives: Fiction

Only one more month until my first Novella, Wingless, is released.  I’m so excited I’m celebrating with writing another manuscript!  I’m following the advice of my favorite writer- Jeaniene Frost.

“My writing advice is simple – write. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it. Read a lot. Be prepared to revise your novel, because revising is part of the process. But until you’ve finished a novel and really gone over it several times, don’t look for an agent. Write first. Make sure you love it. Then jump into the publishing world ”

So I’m writing again, in my never-ending quest to be a great author.  My current manuscript is a series of shorts the first one tentatively titled “The Shadow Fan.”  I do hope to one day be able to meet my favorite author and have her go- “Shelley Martin?  Aren’t you the author that wrote…”

That would be so cool 😉

I remember back-in-the-day when being an author ment you hand over your book, they (the publishers) give you money, they wave their magic wand and your books would sell, sell, sell.  Well, I don’t know if that world ever actually existed outside my own mind, but things just aren’t like that anymore.  It seems every author needs to do self promo these days.  My publisher mentioned it’s because of all the books out there now.  With new publishing avenues such as self pub, vanity publishing, traditional and epub, there are just so many books of every genre out there.

So, my job as an author is to try and stand out.  And let me tell you, it feels pretty overwhelming.  But in the last two weeks I’ve gotten the website going, re-vamped the blog and gotten my author facebook page up.  Now I just need to stand on a really tall box and shout out to passers by “Like Me!”  Anyway, here’s the new page.  I won’t shout at you, though. Just place this little non-intrusive link at the bottom of the post and hope you visit.  Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/ShelleyMartinFiction

I was in the store the other day and passed by the book aisle, as I often do.  On the front of the shelf I saw a book with the most awful title I has ever seen.  I won’t tell you what it is, let’s just say I balked at it.  My disgust was so great I had to know who published it.  I was shocked to see it was a house that is huge, and known for their great titles.  I was floored.  But all that didn’t kill me as much as when I realized the book was written by my second favorite author in the whole world!

I threw it in my cart because of the author, but was embarrassed as I paid for it.

With me, I usually pick up a book based on the title and cover.  But, this was my one forgiveness due to the awesomeness of the author.  So if you fear the hand of the publisher messing up the title of your book, don’t worry.  Your fans will have faith in you.  I did, and I loved the book enough to buy another in the series.  Its title is even worse than the first…  But I know it will be awesome.