The Bachelor Bargain is nearly here!
The Bachelor Bargain is book one in the Secrets, Scandals and Spies series, which is a new series of mine that I can’t wait for you to all read. Stay tuned for the cover reveal which will be happening soon.
The Bachelor Bargain is book one in the Secrets, Scandals and Spies series, which is a new series of mine that I can’t wait for you to all read. Stay tuned for the cover reveal which will be happening soon.
Hello My Awesome Readers!
The Night Owl Romance Love Is In the Air online reader scavenger hunt event is here! Enter between Feb 1st and the 15th.
I’ve teamed up with Night Owl Romance and other authors to bring you the chance to win a Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite, Reader Inspired Prize Bag & Amazon cards.
During this event I’m going to help you find some great new books. Make sure to check out my novel THE SINFUL SCOT along the way.
Enter the giveaway at: https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Love-Is-In-The-Air-2020-by-Night-Owl-Romance This giveaway is open to the world with some items only available in the USA. Void where prohibited. Open to those 18 and over.
I wish you much luck in winning.
Cheers, Maddison xox
Ummm so this happened…still in absolute shock… I just won the Australian Romance Book of the year for historical romance, for my debut novel THE DEVILISH DUKE!!! OMG!! I’m absolutely honored and thrilled to have won an award that is on my bucket list to win this lifetime… well goal achieved!!
A huge thanks to my publisher Entangled Publishing & my agent Pamela Harty from The Knight Agency!! And also to my family, who I couldn’t have done it without! And to my AWESOME readers – you all ROCK!!!!
I’m absolutely thrilled and so honoured, to announce that I’m a finalist in the Historical category for Romance Book of the year, for THE DEVILISH DUKE, in the Romance Writers of Australia awards!! The awards themselves are a highlight of the year for us Aussie romance writers, and to be a finalist is a dream come true! And I’m in amazing company with Tanya Bird and Anne Gracie as my fellow finalists! It’s an absolute honor to have made the finals with my debut book – and I’m so thrilled that the readers that judged the competition enjoyed Devlin & Sophie’s story. Means such a lot!
The awards night itself is being held on the 10th of August in Melbourne, at The Australian Romance Writers Association annual conference, so it’s going to be a fun night to say the least!! Very exciting and I’ll definitely post pictures! Now all I have to do is decide what to wear, lol!! 🙂
Hi Everyone,
I’m finally sharing my wonderful news (which most of you already know about by now): I have been signed another book deal with Entangled Publishing to write 4 more books for them!! Book 3 in the Saints & Scoundrels series, and another 3 books in a brand-new historical romance series have been contracted! And I have a wonderful new editor, Stacy Abrams, who is the Editorial Director of the Entangled Teen and Amara print line! I’m very excited to be working with Stacy, as I just adore so many of the books she’s edited. Fun times ahead for sure!
In other news I’m also working on a Christmas Novella, titled THE MISTLETOE MISTRESS!! And I’m having such fun withing this one – which I can’t wait to share with you all! It’s coming out in a boxed set with about thirty other author’s in early October this year! It’s going to be AWESOME!! Though, I better get back to writing it, as it’s due to my editor shortly… lol!
Take care and talk soon 🙂
Maddy
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Mike I’m thrilled to have you on my blog today, and thank you so much for sharing your querying experience with us. I had so much fun reading about your querying experience, and I know my readers and other authors out there will enjoy it too!
Hello! And thank you for having me! I love trying to help out fellow writers with the query process. I feel like I’m pretty good at breaking down the query letter, so happy to share my knowledge.
That’s awesome – after all, I think the more we help each other out, the better! So let’s begin with your query letter itself and then we’ll get into the questions:
By the time, I queried HERE AND NOW AND THEN, it was the third book I’d queried. My second one got pretty close with a really good request rate, and it was that manuscript where I felt like I learned the formula during that time. So the query for HNT, I probably drafted a few different versions and refined it over the course of a few weeks.
I actually didn’t! I just looked back at the first query I sent and it’s the same one that landed me offers despite being sent four months earlier.
I just checked and it was two weeks.
18 requests over 90 queries.
Oh, I did for sure! The query to my now-agent was actually a result of getting a full rejection from one of my top tier agents, and I was so mad that I went on a revenge-querying spree. Up until then, I sent things out fairly methodically in small batches but I was in a “screw it!” mindset and blasted a bunch out.
Querytracker.net is the best resource for that. I used that with my own spreadsheet.
I tried to send batches of 5-10, and those batches would have a mix of first, second, and third tier agents.
I’m very much a believer in the idea that you don’t want to blow through your top tier first. Just in case your query isn’t working, or you get revision notes that make your manuscript better, it’s a good idea to mix it up. Also, different agents read/request at different speeds regardless of how long they’ve been in the business. When I started out, I did use Querytracker to see who typically responded the fastest and I identified those in my first batch just to get a sense of if the query was working.
I tried to personalize the greeting/opening paragraph especially if there was something personal that made sense. For example, my agent loves Nick Hornby and has a corgi, and I love Nick Hornby and had a corgi at the time who has since passed. But I mentioned that in my query.
It wasn’t quite as dramatic as others have had. The first offer I got was from a smaller agent and first he wanted to talk. But we were having trouble finding time for a call so he said on email that we really should talk because he wanted to offer representation. That kicked off the whole thing. It wasn’t quite as immediate or explosive as some of my other friends!
I did wind up getting multiple offers (more on that below) and when I did actually get to talk to Eric, he said (and I totally remember these exact words) “I want to represent your book. Well, all of your books forever, actually.” He was the third of four offering agents that I talked to and I felt 99% certain that he was the one after that call, though I did my due diligence and took the last call.
As mentioned above, I had four offers of rep. For friends who’ve wound up juggling multiple offers, I advise them to look for three things. First, manuscript feedback: who did you agree with the most? Second, personality: publishing is an intensely personal career, so who do you feel you mesh with the most? Third, communication style: this is an offshoot of personality, but different agents communicate in different ways. Some are very businesslike and others are extremely personal (mine is the latter). Talk to them, talk to their clients, and see what meshes with how you like to work.
It was a mix of questions about my work and how they worked. A short list:
What did you like about the work?
What kind of submission list do you see for this?
What areas do you think it could change or improve?
Are you hands on with editorial or do you prefer the writer handle that on their own?
Can I speak with some of your existing clients?
What is your typical process in working with a new author?
I did not ask about communication style, but I’m lucky that it didn’t end up being an issue. I’ve heard horror stories of completely opposite expectations in the relationship and no one is happy with that, so it’s definitely a priority question.
My most basic advice for querying is to focus on voice, pace, and stakes. I go into it a bit more on my blog post breaking down my own query, but those are the key elements. It’s okay to eschew world building and proper nouns to keep it lean and make sure the pace really goes. Every sentence has to build on the previous one to increase stakes successively. And the opening line should have some ironic hook, which should be referenced in the last line for a feeling of completing the circle.
I’m very active on Twitter and happy to answer any questions regarding the query process or writing queries on there. Don’t be shy!
Thanks so much Mike for sharing your Successful Query Letter with us! It was an absolute pleasure to have you on my blog, and the advice you’ve given will be so helpful to other authors out there and will certainly inspire those about to hunker down in the querying trenches, lol!
And for those of you who want to have a read of Mike’s absolutely amazing debut ‘Here and Now and Then’, it’s scheduled for release on Jan 29th, 2019. Click on the pic below for more info.
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in IT, trying to keep the spark in his marriage, struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.
Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives—eighteen years too late.
Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.
Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It’ll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.
A uniquely emotional genre-bending debut, Here and Now and Then captures the perfect balance of heart, playfulness, and imagination, offering an intimate glimpse into the crevices of a father’s heart and its capacity to stretch across both space and time to protect the people that mean the most.
To order your copy of HERE AND NOW AND THEN, click on the book picture, or the links below:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778369042
https://www.amazon.com/Here-Now-Then-Mike-Chen-ebook/dp/B07B4Z433Y/
About Mike:
Mike Chen is a lifelong writer, from crafting fan fiction as a child to somehow getting paid for words as an adult. He has contributed to major geek culture websites (The Mary Sue, The Portalist), covered the NHL for mainstream media outlets, and ghostwritten corporate articles appearing in Forbes, Buzzfeed, Enterpreneur, and more. A member of SFWA and the Codex Writers group, Mike calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, where he can often be found playing video games and watching Doctor Who with his wife, daughter, and rescue animals.
Mike can be found on the following platforms:
Website address: | http://www.mikechenbooks.com |
Twitter link: | https://twitter.com/mikechenwriter |
Goodreads link: | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36630924-here-and-now-and-then |
More Successful Query Letters:
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If you haven’t already picked up a copy, now is a fantastic time to do so – available at all major online retailers!
ORDER NOW
Amazon: https://goo.gl/e2o9nj
Amazon Can: https://goo.gl/W5ZVWF
Amazon UK: https://goo.gl/NkK5ZN
Amazon Aus: https://goo.gl/eRzfja
iTunes: https://goo.gl/isBrPk
Kobo: https://goo.gl/FFdUxf
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If you haven’t already picked up a copy, now is a fantastic time to do so
Amazon: https://goo.gl/Q8xB6P
iTunes: https://goo.gl/xyyzTH
B&N: https://goo.gl/fR3Y5B
Kobo: https://goo.gl/HRRrPu
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$25 Amazon Gift-Card Giveaway!
WHOO HOO!! IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!!
To celebrate the cover reveal and the upcoming release of THE ELUSIVE EARL a $25 AMAZON gift card is up for grabs on my Facebook Author page: https://facebook.com/MaddisonMichaelsAuthor
A big thanks to my publisher Entangled Publishing, LLC for offering this awesome prize to the lucky winner!!
THE ELUSIVE EARL blurb:
Brianna Penderley has a knack for getting into precarious situations, especially when it comes to her love for archaeology. In the heart of Naples, her terrible Italian has her accidentally becoming engaged to two men at the same time. Of course, Daniel Wolcott—the Earl of Thornton and the only man ever able to vex her—shows up to rescue her.
Daniel has spent the majority of his life exercising rigid control over his emotions, determined never to become the rake his father was. But when he goes to aid his mentor’s danger-prone niece once again, he finds himself struggling to control his attraction to a woman who is his complete opposite.
When their situation goes from bad to worse, Daniel and Brianna find themselves swept up into a perilous adventure, and they must work together to set things right. Now, if they can just avoid killing each other in the process.
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY:
Amazon: https://goo.gl/e2o9nj
Amazon Can: https://goo.gl/W5ZVWF
Amazon UK: https://goo.gl/NkK5ZN
Amazon Aus: https://goo.gl/eRzfja
iTunes: https://goo.gl/isBrPk
B&N: https://goo.gl/me4c7c
Kobo: https://goo.gl/FFdUxf
To be in the running to win the $25 Amazon gift-card, all you have to do is comment on the giveaway post on my Facebook Author page (link at the top of this post and shares will be super appreciated)! The contest will close on Friday 10th Aug at 5pm US ETD, and the winner will be drawn randomly later that night, and the name posted on my Facebook Author page.
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Isn’t the cover great! It’s completely in theme with The Devilish Duke and works so well with it!
So what is The Elusive Earl about exactly? Well, let me tell you…
Romancing the Stone, meets Pride and Prejudice!
Brianna Penderley has a knack for getting into precarious situations. In the heart of Naples, her terrible Italian has her accidentally becoming engaged to two men at the same time. Of course, Daniel Wolcott—the Earl of Thornton and the only man ever able to vex her—shows up to rescue her.
Daniel has spent the majority of his life exercising rigid control over his emotions, determined never to become the rake his father was. But when he goes to aid his mentor’s niece once again, he finds himself struggling to control his attraction to a woman who is his complete opposite.
Then Brianna’s cousin is kidnapped by mercenaries seeking King Aleric’s lost treasure—and they claim Brianna’s family has the key. Daniel knows he can’t leave her side, as much as he might want to. And she’s determined not to lose her heart to such an icy, infuriating man.
PRE-ORDER NOW;