[Infographic] How Genres and Categories Work Together

Hey, guys! Carrie here.One thing we always get asked is, "What's the difference between a genre and a category?" I thought it might help to do a little infographic, using our stance on the matter. :)

 

I know it's a little difficult to read, but I hope it helps. :) Have a great week!

P.S. Do you have a New Adult manuscript nearly polished? Entangled Publishing will be here for a contest on June 5th, and they'll be looking for perfect pitches ( ≤ three sentences). Better start preparing... ;)

Let's Talk Author Websites...

Happy Monday, readers!  I'm back with another discussion topics for both readers and writers, NA or otherwise.

I’ve been doing quite a few websites and WordPress theme designs for clients lately, and visiting a lot of websites in the process (especially those of NA authors), so it’s had me thinking about a couple of things.  Aspiring Author 101 says we should have a website or at the very minimum a blog for our readers to look us up.  The question I’ve been getting lately from many authors is this:  What is it about a website that will keep readers coming back?  And to piggyback off of that, what about an author’s website will make you never return?

First though, let’s go over what almost anyone in the professional writing industry says should be on a site at the bare minimum:

1.   An about page.  If authors are coming to your page, it’s because they want to know more about you.  This is the place to talk about yourself.

2.  A way for the author to contact you and/or connect with you.  I’ve been to quite a few pages that have no way for authors to reach out to you.  If you’re trying to avoid the spammers by not putting your address on there, at least get a form.  Also, if you’re on social media – which you should be – where can they friend or follow you?

3.  A work/writings page.  If your published, you should have your book displayed clear and proud, with a blurb, maybe an excerpt, and links where to buy your book.  If you’re pre-published, put up a summary or sample of writing to whet the reader’s appetite for more.

4.  A blog or a link to a blog, which will give you the opportunity to post recent information and make announcements.

But is that enough?

We want people to visit our pages and be repeat visitors.  So how do we keep them coming back?  As readers of websites and blogs you’ve visited, what is it that makes you want to keep coming back?  Is it the amount of extras?  Blurbs for upcoming books?  Or maybe you’re interested in contests?  

And like I mentioned before, what’s going to make you click the back-button faster than a speeding bullet?  On my part, I get pretty annoyed by the flash websites where I have to wait thirty seconds before I can even access the website.

I readily welcome both reader and writer responses in the comments below.

Editor in the Alley Pitch Contest Winners

Hello! 

I'm back here to tell you the winners of the Editor in the Alley pitch contest we hosted last month with editor Patricia E. Riley from Spencer Hill Press. (Spencer Hill Press | Spencer Hill Contemporary | Spence City).

The winner: Louder Than Words by Iris St. Clair

Runners Up: Flirting with Chaos by Kenya Wright, and If Only by Amy Pine

Congratulations, winners! Please contact us at naalleyblog(at)gmail(dot)com for further instructions.

Cheers,

Bloomsbury Spark

Bloomsbury contacted NA Alley with very exciting news to share with our readers! 
Check it out: 

Bloomsbury is launching a new digital fiction imprint called Bloomsbury Spark that will be targeted to teens and crossover adult readers, including NEW ADULT. The imprint is due to launch later this year, and they are holding an open call for submissions. 

The criteria for manuscript consideration is:

·         25,000-60,000 words (English language only)

·         Word document or pdf format only

·         Target age: 14+

·         Genres: All FICTION categories including but not limited to romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, dystopian, historical, contemporary, fantasy

Submissions can be addressed to Digital Editor Meredith Rich and emailed to: bloomsburysparkus@bloomsbury.com

More information can be found: www.bloomsbury.com/spark

All Bloomsbury Spark books would be contracted for digital rights, with a first option for print editions.

Cheers, 

Interview with cover artist Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations!

Howdy, all! Victoria here and boy do I have a treat for you! NA has gotten simply huge over the last year, which is just all kinds of amazing, right? I just love NA; the thrills, the excitement, and the wonderful journey an author allows me to have through the eyes of their characters. It's just all kinds of awesome and I love every moment of it.

But another thing that is just so great about NA are the fabulous covers. You feel me on this, right? They make you click that "one-click" button and get you crazy and all kinds of excited to start that new NA story! Well, one person who really knows something about covers is the fabulous lady I'm interviewing today. You may have seen her covers around say, The New York Times and USA Today Best Seller lists. She also happens to be my cover artist ;) and the artist of fellow NA Member Juliana Haygert. I'm so happy she joined us today for an interview.

Now, let me take you into the mind of the genius that is Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations!


Tell us a little about your background in graphic design.

I have always been in love with art, every kind. My favorite place to go is The Art Institute of Chicago, in high school I would to go there on the weekends and walk around with tears in my eyes at all the paintings. My father was a copywriter as Leo Burnett in Chicago, he worked on many large advertising campaigns, and I went on shoots with him from time to time. I would sit, go to work with him as a child, and the artists there would draw cartoons and storyboards for me to color in. I feel that I grew up in a world filled with creativity. I was a fine arts major in college, and sort of fell into a mylar balloon design job. I did that for 11 years before leaving last October to do book covers exclusively.


How did you get your start designing for indie authors?

Sarah's first NA cover!

It kind of just happened. I discovered the world of self publishing last Spring. I met Colleen Hoover, and we starting chatting and bonding over our love for John Green. As I got deeper into this business, I made some awesome friends, including Kyla (KA) Linde. When she went to publish Avoiding Commitment her cover artist fell through. She knew I was a graphic designer by profession and asked if I would do the cover. It spiraled from there, and I am currently doing about 40 covers a month and have sold covers to 4 of the big six. This has been a CRAZY year!


Many of your covers are new adult. How do you go about capturing the attention of this specific audience?

Each genre has a different formula in my mind.....by far the most competitive is YA. NA is really quite simple. The covers that show the best, that tend to sell the most, are ones that show hope. That show love, want, passion, but are a bit reserved. An almost kiss does better than a make out session. It's hard to explain, but I think I have a fairly good eye for what sells and what doesn't. I think that comes from being around the advertising industry with my father. All your cover needs to do is advertise your book the best it can. And there is an absolute difference between what will look good on a shelf at B&N and what looks good on Amazon. I try to be equal, I want them to look good both places. And I will make this statement- no matter how many times I hear "I don't like people on the cover" they SELL MORE. They do. Why? Subconsciously, people relate to them more, and are more inclined to click on it. You may not realize you even do this, but trust me. It's true. This is especially true for NA. NA books are heavily character driven, relationship driven. People need to see that emotion on the cover, and have it spark something inside of them. That's how it sells. I could go on forever about this. Now I'm rambling.

New York Times Best Seller!

So many of your covers have been featured on the New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers lists and also picked up by big six publishers. How do you go about creating the perfect image to showcase an author's work?

I never plan. I mean, I have a certain idea of the direction I will take, but honestly my designs just happen as I am doing them. It's very hard when a client wants to know what the cover will be like....because I have no clue until I start doing it.


What's your all-time favorite book cover? (all of your covers are great so let's say not designed by you ;D)

Oh man. This is the hardest question EVER. I can't chose. I will say very high up there for me is the Mara Dyer series. And Speechless by Hannah Harrington is easily the most simplistic beautiful cover. It has the best back synopsis, trust me. I have a section for this on the Okay Creations Pinterest page. Although I suck at updating it :) OH This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. And The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman....oh geez it's like picking a favorite child, just go to my Pinterest haha. http://pinterest.com/okaycreations/my-favorite-covers/

Some of Sarah's All-Time Favorite Covers (not designed by her ;D)

How can an author get in contact with you if they'd like to work with you? And do you recommend how early they should contact you before publishing their work?

 You can email me at okaycreationsSH@gmail.com and please, please realize I am booking a minimum of 6 months out.

Where to see more of Sarah's Work:

Facebook
Twitter
Website
Pinterest

Thanks so much for stopping by, Sarah!

Blogiversary Day 5: NA on the shelves + Giveaway!

Hi, all! Victoria here. What a great anniversary week it's been on NA Alley! We want to thank you for not only an awesome week, but a great year. Without you all we couldn't do what we do and we're so grateful :D

Now, for today we wanted to share a couple pictures with you! NA is not only on Amazon, but in STORES and we thought showing some pictures would be a great way to show how far NA has come.

Walmart:

Just One Day - Gayle Forman

Target:

Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster - Jamie McGuire


Barnes and Noble

From Ashes by Molly McAdams and The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen 

The Wild Ones by M. Leighton

The Thoughtless Series by SC Stephens

Pretty cool, huh? NA has come a long way and we're so happy about that. Now, for the moment you've all been "patiently" ;) waiting for all week: the giveaway! We will have two winners and each will win an ebook prize pack. What are in the prize packs you may ask? Well, check it out below!

Prize Pack #1

Prize Pack #2

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NA Alley would also like to thank all the authors who donated ebooks. We heart you like crazy and thanks again to the readers for an awesome year. Here's to many more!

Blogiversary Day 4 - It's Party Time!

It's party time!!! Come join us at #NAPARTY tonight at 8pm EDT over at Twitter. We have some serious book prizes to give away tonight, so you're not going to want to miss it.
♥ DETAILS ♥
Who: NA Alley
What: Our 1st Blogiversary Party
Where: Twitter (#NAParty)
When: May 02, 2013 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT
Why: Because we love you!

Come on and check out the author websites. They all donated to this awesome event so let's give them some love:

Summer Lane: Website | Blog | Twitter

Carrie Butler:  Amazon | Twitter | Facebook

EJ  Wesley: Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Lynn Rush: Goodreads | Twitter | Amazon

Juliana Haygert: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Victoria Smith: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Jaycee DeLorenzo: Blog | Goodreads | Twitter

LG Kelso: Blog | Twitter

And now I hand it off to EJ....

Hey, gang! Once you're done partying with Lynn and the others, I hope you'll stick around for the official NA Alley Blog-NA Lit Chat After Party! It's super exclusive, and only those who know the password are allowed in. Closed-toed shoes and bottle service are a must!

Okay, it's not THAT exclusive, but it does require a Twitter account and the use of the #NALitChat tag in your tweets. And you'll probably be asked to verify your fandom for Channing Tatum... but that's a story for another time. :)

What is NA Lit Chat? I'll tell you: In 2012 I stumbled across this band misfit NA bloggers called NA Alley. I got really excited about this NA stuff, started tweeting with the Alley contributors, and began cyber-stalking their blogs.

In one of my correspondences to them I said that I was going to start using the #NALitChat tag on Twitter, because if YA, Adult, Indie, etc. had their own hash, NA should too. Shortly thereafter, one of the Alley ladies contacted me and said, "Hey, we should totally have a weekly chat, too. Why don't you do it?"

I was like, "I don't know how... but hell yes!"

Much weeping, gnashing, and planning ensued, but eventually we gave birth to a thriving Twitter chat in July of last year. You'll notice I said "we", because without the gentle--but persistent--nudging and support of the Alley folks I don't think I'd have had the courage to do it on my own.

Since that time, the chat has boomed. We trend on Twitter most weeks. Some of the fledgling writers who I first met on the chat not even a year ago are now USA Today and NYT bestselling authors. (No credit to the chat by the way--just an example of the kind of awesome we attract! lol) We regularly have guests and publishing industry experts who share their knowledge and insight with our NA chatters. All of which might not seem like that big of a deal, but when we started this thing, I figured most weeks it would be me, Carrie, Jaycee, Victoria, Summer, Juliana, Bailey, and L.G. talking about what we had for dinner.

In short, I've been blown away by all the fervor for NA just like everyone else, and I like to think the chat is a small part of it all. And I also think NA Alley--like so many other things in the NA community of ours--was a key part of making it happen.

So join us (9 PM EST) after the NA Alley Twitter Celebration tonight, and help Carrie and the others keep the party going.You'll meet a ton of fellow NA cheerleaders, chat with NA authors, and probably make some new friends, too. Bonus: We do this Twitter NA chat thing EVERY Thursday night, so you might even have a new hangout when it's all said and done.

Happy Blogiversary NA Alley!

Your Grateful Fans,

E.J. & Everyone From #NALitChat