DIFFERENT ROADS by Joyce Sterling Scarbrough

We've all known women like Jaycee--women who make themselves so hard to love when all they really want is someone to love them unconditionally.

After her mother�s death, six-year-old Jaycee Stevens is neglected by her alcoholic father and soon learns that misbehavior gets attention, and she decides she would rather be beaten than ignored. She grows up in rural Alabama a foul-mouthed hellion who takes [censored] off no one, and she lives in fear of anyone finding out she's also a love-starved little girl terrified of the dark. After her heart is broken by her father and her first love, her intrepid spirit carries her forward to her goal of becoming an investigative journalist until she is tripped up in college by a poor little rich boy who turns out to be the male version of herself.

Jaycee and Bud are an emotional paradox: drawn together because they�re so much alike and constantly at war for the same reason. They fight as frequently and as physically as they make love, hurting each other even as they become two halves of a whole. Jaycee�s rollercoaster life with Bud is gritty, touching, and funny, and just when she thinks she�s made it safely to the end of the ride, her childhood comes back to derail her and she must finally face her biggest fear--what happened to her in the dark?

DIFFERENT ROADS is about first loves that get lost, hearts that call to each other, and the roads that lead us to the ones for whom we are meant.

Sounds good, Joyce.

How is it selling? Are you mass marketing? Doing book signings??? Inquiring minds... especially for the marketing challenged.

Well, I earned back my modest advance in the first month, so that makes my publisher happy. ;-) It's available through all the online booksellers and by order from any book store, and it's stocked locally in a few independent stores. I'm doing all I can in the self-promotion arena by scheduling a few local book signings, garnering reviews, entering promotional contests, and general visibility through posting on multiple forums like this one. I do have a couple of upcoming promotional events I'm happy about. I'll be featured at Little Lip Productions BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Wow, to sell out your advance in the first month is pretty damn good. It sounds like you're doing an amazing job and you've done so much. How do you find the time?

It's funny how well we know and grow to love (although I've been plenty mad at)our characters. I do hope they get their voices and stories heard.

Is your small publisher conneted with a large distributor? Can any of the books be ordered into Barnes and Nobles or Borders? I worked for Borders for a while and would just special order the books in, if nobody claims them, they shelve them.

Well, keep up the great and hopeful spirit. A friend of mine set herself a time limit to when she'd "finally" get published. One month before the goal date, it finally happened. And now she's getting published left and right (she writes romance) and has made so many connecitons through RWA, that her books are selling quite well. I'm very proud of her tenacity.

Good luck. I'll look for your book. Happy writing.

Great news! How about giving a few pointers on how you earned back the advance so soon? It's funny as writers we think that the hard part is writing the book, it's the business end tht I find most difficult.

Hi, Colette:

The key word about my advance in the previous message is "modest"! LOL My publisher is a small press but making strides toward growing with each book added to its list.

I got most of the ideas I use for promotion from this great book "POD People: Beating the Print-on-Demand Stigma" by Jeremy Robinson (he self-published and got the attention of a New York agent because of his promotional efforts).

Coincidentally, the last blog entry I did was about taking advantage of every opportunity to promote my books. It's rather tongue-in-cheek, but you might find it interesting. ;-)

Here's another promotional trend in the publishing world: book trailers. My humble effort can be viewed here -BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!