Milk’s Just The Beginning…

As a long-time romantic, avid reader, and now published romance author, I’ve never liked the adage that encourages us to reject the cow for free milk.   On the one hand, I get it.  In marketing terms, a person can devalue a product by giving it away.  However, can you really devalue something that no one knows about?

If you searched the web right now, you’d find several authors giving away free books.

Here’s the thing.  Writers want readers to give our stories a try.  In fact, our characters live and breathe by this notion.  But give our stories away when we’re trying to make a living writing?  Does that make sense?

Writers, like most creative people, are a complex combination of innovative energy and debilitating insecurity.  We agonize that our words are not good enough.  Yet on some basic level, we believe readers will enjoy our stories.  When we give  them away, we aren’t devaluing our story, we’re shouting to the world that we have something of major value, something that if you just tried, you might love.  Love enough to read our other books.  Love enough to buy our other books. Love enough to keep reading and buying our books throughout the years. 

In a marketing article I just read, the author encouraged that: “When your product or service is superior to the competition you are going to need an effective way to get the word out and educate potential customers and clients.”

Put another way: “The world will not beat a path to your door for an insanely great mousetrap. In fact, the better your mousetrap, the more difficult it is to get people to embrace it because it is so different from what people are used to.”-- Guy Kawasaki

And as far as that old cow goes?  The cow has so much more to offer than free milk, and anyone who doesn’t recognize that is just plain short-sighted.

1. A cow eats grass then produces manure, which fertilizes the grass
2. The manure is used to fertilize fruits and vegetables
3. The cow eats more grass, which has now been fertilized
4. The cow produces milk and cream (in addition to…well, you know, but let’s focus on that milk), which makes ice cream…and enhances our coffee…and produces cheese and cakes and yogurt and… well, you get the picture

So really, why limit yourself to free milk when the cow is offering you so much more???

Today, you can download several of my books for free on Amazon. 

·         Paranormal romantic suspense novel:   Chosen By Sin (Para-Ops #3) (ends 3/18)

• Contemporary romance novel: This Magic Moment (ends 3/18)
• Contemporary romance novella: Wild For Him (ends 3/20)

For a limited time, you can also download more awesome books at www.freepartay.com

Next time you see a cow, or an author self-promoting despite how painfully shy she is, give it or her some love!  They’ll appreciate it—as I appreciate all my wonderful supporters.  Thank you!

Please comment on this blog post to be entered into a $10 Amazon gift card giveaway.

Bio: Virna DePaul is a former criminal prosecutor and now national bestselling author of the Para-Ops Novels.  She also writes contemporary romantic suspense for Harlequin Romantic Suspense (It Started That Night, May 2012) and HQN (Shades Of Desire, June 2012).  Sign up for her mailing list for access to her monthly writing “cheat sheets” and reader contests.  www.virnadepaul.com

Virna's latest release is Chosen By Sin, Book 3 in the Para-Ops Novels, which you can purchase in paperback (or download the e-book for free for a limited time) at Amazon.  Find out more at www.chosenbysin.com

Chosen By Sin:

 

The longest life isn’t always the happiest one…

Five years after the Second Civil War ends, humans and Otherborn—humanlike creatures with superhuman DNA—still struggle for peace. To ensure the continued rights of both, the FBI forms a Para-Ops team with a unique set of skills.

For now, werebeast Dex Hunt serves on the Para-Ops team, but his true purpose is to kill the werewolf leader he blames for his mother’s death. Biding his time, Dex keeps his emotional distance from his team members and anyone else he might care for, including a mysterious vampire he met in L.A.

As a doctor, vampire Jesmina Martin has dedicated her immortal life to healing others. As a scientific researcher, she’s trying to prolong life spans, in particular those of her adoptive dragon-shifter family and the werewolf who saved her as a child. Her greatest hope lies with Dex, a werebeast she believes can gift immortality to others.

Only Dex knows nothing about his gift or the fact Jesmina wants to harness it. After a passionate night together neither expects to see the other again. Weeks later, they are reunited in France and forced to acknowledge a fragile miracle—a new life struggling to survive. At the same time, they must stop a group of rebel shape-shifters hoping to unleash every demon in hell. But before Dex and Jesmina can save their child or the world, they must relinquish their secrets, face their fears, and open themselves to love.

***Virna's winner is Michele L.!!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your info! Thanks!!***