Whispering Falls!

I'm so excited! For the first time EVER, A Magical Cures Mystery Series is on sale for .99!
Why?
Why not?
Whispering Falls is a magical place and I'm excited for all the new ereader owners to discover the mystery, magic, and love! 
Be sure to tell all of your friends about June Heal and the gang so they can catch up on all the happenings and mayhem in Whispering Falls before all the new books in the series are published in 2015!
#MAGICAL CURES #MYSTERY SERIES ONLY .99! 
AMAZON: http://amzn.to/177Ay3r 
NOOK: http://bit.ly/1BdBIFE 
#witch #books

RELEASE DAY AND BLOG TOUR for A CHARMING WISH

It's here!! It's a couple of days early. . .but I don't mind!

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

"Tonya Kappes' A Magical Cure Series, charmed me until the end!" ~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

Bubble, Bubble. . .

It seems shop owner and newly appointed Whispering Falls Village President June Heal has it all: Beauty, wits, bewitching powers...Sheriff Oscar Park. Life is good. Because life in Whispering Falls is magical.

Cures and Trouble. . .

But when a member of the community is found dead on the steps of A Charming Cure, June's homeopathic cure shop, and her fingerprints show up at the scenes of local robberies, she is kicked off the village council and her powers fall under scrutiny. Until it's uncovered who is wreaking havoc on the town...June's magic is suspended.

Magic Stirs. . .

With the help of a rather obnoxious genie and Mr. Prince Charming, June's Fairy-God cat, June is determined to figure out who is framing her. Time is of the essence when it becomes clear that the true villain is trying to get rid of her...permanently!

And Trouble Doubles. . .

Oscar Park will do anything to protect June even if that means giving up all of his magical powers. . .or worse, his life.

My blog tour starts tomorrow and I hope you join me! There are prizes and fun to be had!

March 17, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Cozy up with Kathy
March 14, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Mochas, Mysteries & More
March 15, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Cozy Mystery Book Review
March 16, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Omnimystery
March 17, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Shelley Reads & Reviews

March 19, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Musings & Ramblings
March 20, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at A Blue Million Books
March 21, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at A Chick Who Reads
March 28, 2013
A Charming Wish Book Tour stops at Melina's Book Blog
April 3, 3013
A Charming Wish Book tour stops at Read Your Writes 
April 12, 2013
A Charming Wish Book tour stops at Dru's Book Musing

Be sure to spread the word about this series. Don't forget to join my STREET TEAM so you can join in on the launch fun at my SPRING FLING PARTY where over fifty authors have donated a copy of their novels!

Are YOU a Bestselling Author?

Is your book buzz worthy? Do you aspire to be a bestselling author?
Are you doing the same marketing and promoting of each book the same way? Doing the same ole things hoping that it will work with each book you put out?

Well. . .it won't!

In order to be a bestselling author you have to evaluate what works and what doesn't. You have to have a plan.

Your writing career does not afford you to keep trying things that don't work.

Let's discuss the bestseller's status. Most traditional authors turn their heads at any other bestsellers status other than the big ones like New York Times, USA Today, etc....BUT they are missing the boat on creating more buzz for their novels!

It's so important to make those Amazon and Barnes and Noble bestsellers lists. Once you make the lists, your novel gets put into those algorithms and make you more visible to the readers. Amazon will even promote you when you get high enough on the lists, which again. . .makes you more visible to your target audience. So CLAIM your bestseller status when you make one of those lists!!!

Still. . .you have to get there. Is your marketing and promoting plan doing it for you? Are YOU a bestselling author?

Now, I'm assuming that you have written a really great book. A book with an amazing cover, no editing issues, perfect formatting~NO ISSUES!

Before that book is uploaded or goes to print, you should already have your marketing plan put in place!
I'm not talking about setting up a blog tour, giving our ARCs of your novels to reviewers, making swag for your author brand. These are things that I hope you are already doing without me telling you.
I'm talking about entering major awards, do free audio podcasts for your blog site, plan reader events by using your Kindle or google plus chat. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!!!

A few months ago the eFestival of Words announced the finalist in all their book categories. I was pleasantly surprised when I was alerted that Carpe Bead 'em was a finalist in the women's fiction/chick-lit category. I have no idea who nominated me to thank them, so I knew if I won, I was going to have to give back even more than I already do to my readers.

My readers got so involved with voting me to the WINNER status! I looked at all the winners. ONLY 8 of the winners had over 20 reviews and 4.5 ratings. Guess what we did. . .WE THOUGHT OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!!

We wanted to offer our award winning novels at a crazy price. Not to mention that we could PR BUDDY each other. My readers would LOVE my co-winners books. We all lowered our price to .99 for two days. We came up with a graphic and blog post to help get the word out.

We dubbed ourselves the GREAT EIGHT and reached out to all our blogger friends, put together a banner, contacted Amazon, contacted all REAL heavy hitters at Ereader News Today, Kindle Fire Daily, Pixel Of Ink, Digital Book Today , Indie Ereader, as well as Amazon giving us a page to ourselves!

But we didn't stop there! We each had an award winning book and we wanted to make those bestsellers lists so we could get into more reader's hands. So....we each had a call out to all our social media groups asking for people to post a blog that we had come up with. The blog had all the links and pictures they needed. There was no work on the blog owners part! We did it for them.

We have over 100 bloggers post the blog, not to mention all the Facebook and twitter status our followers had posted.

Now....a year ago when I released Carpe Bead 'em, Ereader News Today featured my Carpe on their own. I didn't pay for a thing! The owner had written me to tell me that he had heard my book was good and he was going to help me sale a few copies. FEW COPIES???

Last year I sold over 7k copies from just Ereader News Today! It was amazing. I didn't pay for an ad or even knew who Ereader News Today was. BUT Carpe went straight to #1 on Amazon's Movers and Shakers list and stayed there for THREE DAYS!!!

Fast forward to last week when my book was lumped with the rest of the GREAT EIGHT! Only on Ereader News Today, the second time around, Carpe Bead 'em found an audience of over 1200 new readers! Before the promo, Carpe was at 30k rank, after the Ereader News Today hit Carpe ended in the ranks at #375 in the paid store. WOW WOW WOW!!

Amazing! Right?!

It wouldn't have happened if we didn't think outside the box. The entire GREAT EIGHT became bestselling authors, again, that day!

Do you think that you can think outside the box and become the bestselling author you deserve to be??

What came first, the website or the author?

We've covered a few things that you need to promote and market your career already.
PR Personality Test
What Is A Brand?

What about a website? Do you need a website? Do you need a website before you have a book out?

Why don't you just go ahead and ask me, "what came first, the chicken or the egg?"
This is sort of like the big debate on the pricing of ebooks. Nonetheless, it's all important information for you to put in the back of your head. OR in your writer's toolbox to refer to when you are thinking about a website. All I can do is give you pros of having a website at all stages of your career, starting without a book.

Author Buzz Founder, MJ Rose gave me a quote for my upcoming non-fiction book, The Tricked Out Toolbox~Promotional and Marketing Needs Every Writer Needs.
"Yes, you need a website, but it doesn't have to be complicated. People go to your website after they hear about you and your book. No one wakes up and says I'm going to start searching for websites of authors I never heard of."

AND

NYT Bestselling author, Brenda Novak's advice, "a website is important for anyone who's really serious about becoming a professional writer. Just as you lay the foundation for selling your first book by finishing a manuscript and submitting, you lay the foundation for the promotion side of your business by creating a great website, one where you can begin to establish a presence in the community."

AND

Agent, Holly Root, even weighed in on the subject. "A website helps me get a sense of who the author is. I've never said no to a bad site, but it does make me eager to say yes."

I have to agree that it is very important to have a website. I use to have a high dollar website with web hosting, web designer, yadda-yadda. I gave all that up for here! I love this blogger site and I choose it because it fit the needs of my target audienc.

1) Know your goal. Determining your purpose—meaning what you want people to take away from your site—is key.
 I wanted my site to be light. All about tips and tricks I have learned on the way. My website is centered around this blog. My website is my blog.

2) Keep your audience in mind. 

My audience is writers and paying it forward. I do know that my readers come here to check out my tabs with my books, trailers, and events page.

3) Knowing the Purpose of Your Website.

My purpose is to help other authors and entertain my readers. Simple!

Based on what your audience see, will they pursue you as a writer, or cut you lose?

o   One: selling yourself is knowing that a bad website is worse than no website, so make sure you create a professional web presence.

o   Two: make sure your website exemplifies you as a professional writer. Your site is doing more than selling your writing. It’s giving a snapshot of your commitment to your craft. You must exhibit proper use of the English language and show your attention to detail. Take yourself seriously as a writer and others will, too.

o   Three: edit your website carefully, always keeping your target audience in mind.

o   Four: choose a website design to match your genre. The visual design of your website should

 mimic or compliment the style of your writing and the tone of your books. If you write erotica, naked people and a sexy feel are great. For a gritty thriller writer, not so much.

o   Five: dress for the job you want, not the job you have. That saying is applicable to websites, as well. Your job is to sell your personality, or the desired image you are creating, to the public. Build a site that highlights you AS A WRITER. Sure, being a handsome or pretty person helps, but an interesting life story or a beautiful visage will not sell your book. Dress your website by focusing on your career as a writer, not your pretty face!

I started my new website on September 17, 2011, a little over four months ago. My target audience is to reach writers with my blog and readers with my tabs/content. As of today, I have had over 11k page views. I keep the counter on the side of my blog because even seeing it go up one, makes me giggle and tickle inside.

The Plot Monkey's Blog asked this a couple years ago, and I've found the findings in the comments very interesting.

The Huffington Post also has a great post on Does An Author Need A Website.

What about you? Do you have a website? Why or why not?

Happy New Life Free For A Couple Of Days!

Happy New Life is free for the next couple days! I wanted to thank everyone for your support, and the only way I can do that is to offer you a free book! If you have it, please pass it along and let someone else discover Grandberry Falls.

Interior decorator and divorced mom, Liz Day, is living her dream by opening up The Mole Hole Interiors. Life couldn't be better with best friend Jenna Greenlee and boyfriend, Cole Michaels by her side. Until she discovers a deep secret between Jenna and Cole that will change the lives in Grandberry Falls.

Jenna vows to make the new year, the beginning of a NEW LIFE. . .HAPPY NEW LIFE.

"Another wonderful, heart-felt trip through Grandberry Falls. 
Recently divorced all Liz wanted was a place to call home, where she could raise her son apart from the life she was leaving behind.

Life was coming together, finally. Every other weekend saw her traveling, taking her son to visit his father. The rest of the time saw her running her business and falling into place perfectly. Still, something was missing . . . or is that someone was missing. 

Enter Cole. Sparks fly almost instantly between Cole and Liz, but when Liz sees the reaction her BFF Jenna has to him . . well, things get a bit confusing for Liz. Does she follow her heart and check out this connection with Cole that she can't deny is there? Or does she stay true to her friendship and dis him because her BFF has a problem with him, even if she doesn't understand what that issue is? It also doesn't help matters that when Liz moved to town she was talked into getting a dog and Cole just happens to be the dog trainer and local vet. 

I tried really hard to make this book last a few days. I was making sure to only read a little bit each night, and I did good for a few nights. Then last night when I picked up the book, it had other ideas. I started reading and before I knew it, the book was over! 

If you haven't had the chance to visit Grandberry Falls, I highly recommend that give it a go . . you won't be disappointed." Reader, Stephanie Overton

" With Happy New Life, her 4th novel of the year and 2nd in the charming Grandberry Falls series, I can honestly say her work just gets better and better. This is my favorite so far, which is really saying something as I have adored everyone of her completely refreshing stores. I love how this one centers on 2 people brought together by a sweet dog, Tramp. There's a little romance, a little mystery, but above all else it's a heartwarming look at the power of love, friendship, and forgiveness. And set during the holiday season in a picturesque little town is just the icing on the cake. " Reader, Melissa Lapiere

You can download your copy of HAPPY NEW LIFE on Amazon.

FREE! Bead of Doubt

Merry Christmas!!


I'm offering my Divorced Diva Mini-Mystery for free to you! Instead of gifting free copies to all my favorite peeps (you), I've decided to make BEAD OF DOUBT free for the holiday season only!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays...You mean the world to me!!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/115309