Open Letter to Romance Epublishers:

Ok. I love epublishers. I really do. They have opened up the romance genre to newer authors and are more “open” to new ideas, whether kinky or not. I would love to have a Sony eReader or a Kindle. I really would. But I’m too cheap. So I suffer through reading ebooks on my laptop. Do I like it? No. One day I'll get one, I tell myself…

Now, the point of this blog post is this: please, ebook publishers, make your websites more searchable. I like contemporaries. Sometimes I am looking for a contemporary ménage a trois story. But I either have to look at ALL the ménages or ALL of the contemps. I can’t whittle down the list to just contemp ménages. Why? Why must I muddle through all of one or the other?

I want to find what I am looking for faster without going through multiple pages of one category hoping I find the type of story I am looking for.

For example: Say I want a contemporary m/m romance that is over 50k words. Have a search to narrow it down for me. Please? Pretty please? There has to be a way.

Twitter: Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

In this day and age, online social networking is large. Actually larger than life. If it wasn’t for my evil day -- actually, evening -- job, I’d spend more time talking to people through my computer than I would face to face or on the phone. Some people think there is something wrong with that (my father for example, who is behind the times, of course!) but I’ve met more people globally since joining groups and online organizations, forums and social networking sites. People who I would never have had access to otherwise.

I’d have to say I love it. Tired of talking to someone? Go offline. It’s that easy. Someone harassing you? Block them. A click here, a click there, and you can make a new friend, reunite with an old one, or ignore someone you don’t like.

Among others, I belong to the popular networking sites like MySpace (over 1400 friends), Facebook (over 400 friends) and my newest love… TWITTER.

I don’t know how I stumbled across this one. But if you haven’t discovered it, do. It’s addicting. Of course, I’m just a baby there. I only joined about a month ago and have already picked up over 150 “followers,” people who get everything I type into that box (up to 140 characters). I follow about 240 people and get to read everything that those 240 people say. Sometimes it’s eye opening, educational and sometimes? Not so much.

Twitter is a combination instant messaging site and micro-blog. I actually forward my tweets to some of my other sites, like Facebook. It’s a great tool for promotion. I know it does drive more people to websites and blogs. All you have to do is “tweet” the link. I check out links all the time on it and find some very interesting stuff.

Authors and publishers tweet about new releases, appearances, and contests. When Romance Divas posted my interview on their blog, I “tweeted” that.

I use my pen name on Twitter because I am trying to establish name recognition. And between all my online avenues, I am definitely doing that. What did we ever do without the Internet?

If you decide to check out Twitter, come check out my page http://www.twitter.com/jeannestjames and “follow” me. Every once in a while I may say something profound. But I don’t guarantee it.

My first interview

Here is my first (and hopefully not last) interview at Romance Divas:

http://romancedivas.com/divablog/2009/01/an-interview-with-jeanne-st-james-erotic-romance-writer/

Please come read it and leave a comment.

Ramblings

I am so happy to have a web designer working on my website: www.jeannestjames.com because it really needed some help. I do not have time to do it myself.

Anyone who does not belong to Twitter yet (www.twitter.com) needs to get on board. It is fun, addicting and can drive traffic to your website and/or blog.

Now, for a rant: I flew to Portland, OR over the New Year's. On our trip back we had to take US Airways instead of Continental. Oh, brother! We sat ONE HOUR in the plane at the gate (yes, 1 hour) because the catering company did not load the food. So our over 5 hr flight took over 6 hrs. And to add insult to injury, they don't even give you snacks. No, you must BUY everything. Water? Yes. Soda? Yes. they charge for everything and there is not inflight movie or TV. Luckily I had my iPod Nano. Oh, I could have flown first class and received a free glass of water. $2 per soda or water. Give me a break, US Airways, at least you could have made up for keeping us at the gate for an hour by giving us a free glass of water. BOO on YOU!

Now, on good news: My manuscript, Banged Up, was requested by two publishers. I hope to hear good news soon.

My Menage Story

What can be better than writing a hot romance about a man and a woman. How about two men and a woman? I am having so much fun writing my first menage a trois story and it's an interracial one, too. I have the title already, but I'm keeping that under wraps. I'm 28,000 words into a story which I expected to be about 20k, now I think it will be 60k.