Summary:
Ben, a young gay romance author, loses his way in the forest one stormy evening and is found by a ranger. When Ben pitches in to help his new friend Peter in the woodshed, he discovers that he may have met his match. Will Peter make Ben's woodshed wishes come true?
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Excerpt from Woodshed Wishes:
Excerpt from Woodshed Wishes:
“Come on, Petey,” I whined, teasing him with my personal rendition of his name. I only used it when I was desperate to get my own way. The slight narrowing of his eyes betrayed how little he thought of my chosen pet name for him, but I took the opportunity to argue my point with a pout. “It’s still summer. We won’t need a fire for months with this heat. There's plenty of time to do the work.”
On any other day, my brown puppy eyes could make him crumble and agree to whatever I suggested, but on that day in particular, he appeared to somehow have the strength to refuse.
“You should take a leaf out of your own book — literally,” he jested back, adding a little more pressure to my breast bone to deter my attempt to edge nearer to him. “What was it that Blake said to Trent in Ballboys? ‘Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today’?”
I rolled my eyes when he quoted one of my many characters. Trust him to know my stories word for word, not that I could complain. Some scenes from my books gained their inspiration from things Peter and I had experienced together.
“Yes, but you forget that Blake was encouraging Trent to get down on his knees and suck his cock today instead of putting it off until tomorrow,” I corrected him. “So how about we re-enact that scene?”
My hinting words distracted him long enough that I was able to take the last step towards him. Reaching down, I snagged my fingers under the belt that was looped through the waistband of his jeans and started to unbuckle it. Though his eyes contained a slight glaze of lust from the thoughts I’d instilled in him, he snapped out of his distraction and caught a hold of my wrists, prying my hands away from him and holding them there.
“Tut tut, naughty boy,” he scolded with a teasing tone. “I have plans for tonight once all this work is done, but you want to jump the gun and get the party started early? You can’t disrupt my plans like that. You ought to be punished.”
Nat's been a regular here at the blog as she's been at this publishing thing for a little longer and has tasted it from both sides of the process. So, I asked:
What are the pros & cons of self-publishing versus traditional publishing through a house?
Good question.
In my experience and opinion, there are pros and cons to both sides. Some might say that going through a publishing house is easier because then all the work gets done for you, such as editing, book covers, and promotion. Well, that isn't completely true.
To begin with, many traditional publishing houses have set guidelines to format your manuscript to before you even consider submitting to them. Each house is different, so you have to make sure that you get it all right for the specifics they demand. Once that is done, you then have at least an eight week wait just to hear from them about whether or not they like your story and what they intend to do with it. In the mean time, what you should do while waiting is to keep writing, start a brand new story, and never send the same manuscript to more than one publisher at a time. They wouldn't appreciate you telling them that even though they want to sign you, they can't because another beat them to it for that story.
As for all the editing and cover art being done for you, that's half true and half false. Yes, the editing is done, but only in a way that you still need to go over your story several times to alter the corrections made and to make sure you make no further mistakes. If you're lucky, you may get some say on your cover art, depending on the publishing house's preference of how they work things.
For promotion, the publishing house will advertise your book before and during its release, but that doesn't mean you get to sit on your hands and leave them to it. Self promote, but don't do so too much that it will annoy people who view your blog, twitter, and author pages. Mix it up by spreading the love and promoting other authors, who may well return the favour. Pat their back and they'll pat yours.
When it comes to self-publishing, I guess it goes on a person's preference. When you go through a traditional publisher, the cover art and editing are all in the package, whereas when you self-publish, you have to sort that all out yourself. If you want your manuscript to be professionally edited and a really amazing cover made for you, it all costs. When I self-published my books, I made the covers myself using an art programme on my computer and my digital camera. As for editing, I couldn't afford it to be done and several readers flamed my books because of that. There was, however, a handful who didn't care about the editing because the content of the book was more important. You read for the characters and the story, not the missing comma.
I suppose the only other difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing is the time frame. Yes, you could well take a month to edit and produce the cover art for your self-published book, which is quicker than waiting the two months to hear if you've even been accepted by a traditional house. Also, through traditional, the average waiting time from acceptance to the first sale is around six months, which is used up by excessive editing, usually three or four passes worth. In the time that takes, you could have already made money through self-publishing.
It really depends on how much quality you want your book to hold. Rush it, make money, but probably get flamed for bad editing, or take the time to submit to houses, get some proper edits done and a professional cover, and hope that it pays off in the end.
About the Author:
N. Wood is a budding young author living in Cornwall, United Kingdom. She developed an interest in writing when her poetry was first published at the age of nine. Since then, she has moved onto writing both short stories and novels focusing on gay romantic themes.
Also by N. Wood:
La Cala
Waves Of Healing
Coming Soon from Renaissance Romance Publishing:
Take A Gamble, Second Edition, on November 12, 2013.
Nat's Tour Schedule:
10/24:
10/27:
thanks for having me xxx
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