So, today my first ever (but definitely not the last) order from Book Depository has arrived. I admit to being paranoid and uneasy while waiting for my package, and there was a part of me that worried about the package ending up with the post office, which would then require me to pay taxes despite the site's guarantee that they deliver to your doorstep AND the fact that - legally speaking - all imported books are supposed to be duty-free.
Thankfully, though, none of that happened. Everything was good, and since I really found all the reviews posted by other bloggers sharing their experiences with BD extremely helpful, I thought I'd pay it forward and share mine as well.
1. Why order from Book Depository?
In a nutshell - shipping is free AND they deliver straight to your place. You don't need to jump through all sorts of hoops the way you have to when ordering from Amazon. Also, they have a pretty good selection for both discounted and regular-priced books.
2. Create your BD account.
Super easy. Make sure to double check your name and shipping details. You wouldn't want them to ship your package to the wrong address, would you?
3. Shop.
Easiest thing in the world to do. Want me to do it for you? :D
4. Pay.
Technically you don't need a credit card since they process their payments via PayPal, and the latter allows you to pay using your debit card. Once you've paid, BD will email you an order confirmation.

However, keep in mind that's just a confirmation email. Your books aren't actually on their way yet. When they are, you'll receive another email with the following as a subject: YOUR ORDER (#) IS ON ITS WAY.
This means your items have finally been dispatched. You can double check by logging in to your BD account.
Click on Orders (upper right corner of your screen). Input your order # (just copy paste from the subject line of BD's second email) and your email address.

You'll be taken to your order page. As you can see with the screenshot below, although I ordered on 2/8, the items were dispatched on 2/11. This is because BD needs time to go through their suppliers and ascertain that your books are in good condition before having them shipped.

5. And the waiting begins.
This is the hardest part. Because I've researched about other people's experiences, I know that the luckiest ones were able to receive their packages in one week. The not-so-lucky ones had to wait for 3 weeks or even an entire month. The average though is 3 weeks, but even so, knowing this still didn't stop me from worrying. In fact, I was so paranoid about this that I even posted a question on the #romanceclass FB group when normally I'm too shy to start any kind of thread in any forum. >.< 
That was today, by the way, and everyone reassured me that my waiting period was normal. 
But then here's the weird thing. An hour after I posted my question, someone knocked on our door and, well, well, well - what do you know? My package has arrived! Syet, sana pala hindi ko na lang kinapalan mukha ko and nag post pa ko sa FB group. >.<

Individual packages! Which I expected because of the reviews I read. What I did not expect was the texture. They weren't the easily torn kind, if you know what I mean. Also because of the reviews, I made sure to look for bookmarks. And there was one for each book, yay!

Oh, and as for my current package - they're already on my shelf: classic fairytales as illustrated by the wonderful Camille Rose Garcia. ❤️

And that's it for my Book Depository experience. Preordered my second package already and will be ordering my third one in a few days. :)

So, for #authorlifemonth (basically a photo challenge for Instagram), Day 22 asked me to post a photo of a dedication page (I'm assuming mine). And it just struck me then, how different things are now, compared to how it was when I was still dreaming of getting published.
Used to be, when I'm feeling frustrated or when I'm feeling particularly hopeful about my prospects for getting published, I'd create a new document and it would just be for - guess what - my future dedication page. 
I'd spend countless minutes agonizing every word. I want it to be short but sweet but I always end up with a list that spans the entire page. One day, I recall telling myself. One day, this would be reality.
Fast forward years later (over a decade at least)---
And here I am, and almost all of my books do not have dedication pages. >.< The only time I remember I have to do it is for print books, and that's only because I have this list from Tania Arpa (check her out, she does covers and format books and stuff). Well, it's not actually a list per se, but more like guidelines sent over by email and one of it was about dedication / acknowledgments. If not for that reminder, I wouldn't have even remembered to write one. I always remember to thank readers at the end of each story, but other than that...
I guess it's not just a big a thing as it used to be. And it's not that I'm not thankful. I am. 
The people I need to thank, like my parents and loved ones - I do it every day, in person.
The people I work with, like my editor and cover artist, I thank them every time we complete a project. 
I thank them every time, and I mean it every single instance I utter those words.
So why don't I create those acknowledgment pages?
I guess because...I no longer need the sense of validation it used to give me, when I was still unpublished. Back then, acknowledgment pages weren't just about thanking the people around me. Rather, and I'm being completely honest here (but please also keep in mind that this is just me, and YOU can have different ideas and feelings about it) - acknowledgment pages were more like something ONLY A PUBLISHED AUTHOR HAS THE PRIVILEGE of doing.
And that's why I wanted to do it.
That's it.
Now, even after writing this post, I'd like to think that I'll change and start writing acknowledgment pages again, just so I can show my thanks to the people who helped me behind the scenes but honestly?
I doubt I'd remember doing it.
I'd like to think that instead of wanting me to thank them on every single book, these people appreciate the fact that I'll always have their backs, that I'm so genuinely grateful for how much they've helped me that if they ever need me - I will be there for them.
I hope these people know that.
And yeah, I know this isn't a lesson that will benefit aspiring authors but I thought I should share it nonetheless. Not sure why, just thought I should. :)

So...an example of a syllogistic fallacy:

Major premise: I (a successful author) sell X number of books each day.
Minor premise: Only less than 5 authors are able to sell X number of books each day.
Conclusion: Everyone besides those 5 authors are not successful because they don't sell X number of books each day.

In a way, you can even consider this as a false dichotomy because it's making you presume that if you don't sell X number of books each day, you are AUTOMATICALLY UNSUCCESSFUL.
There's also the fact that the definition of success is subjective. If we're to agree to certain parameters to define success then those parameters need to be specified so that people would at least know whether they'd like to set the same standards for themselves.
So anyway, now that I got that off my chest, you can search for a certain article about Meredith Wild as a phenomenal indie success and after reading that you can search for a blog post that says only those less than forty authors who were able to duplicate Ms. W's achievements may be considered successful.
​
Fallacy alert: If you read the blog post, you'll see that an assumption was made about AMZ's statement being true because they're, well, Amazon (appeal to authority). Nothing against AMZ naturally, but it's illogical to assume that everything AMZ says will always be true just because they're Amazon. Then again, this is a moot point since the blog post took AMZ's statement out of context.

Please keep in mind that I'm actually technically better off if I don't talk about this. If I allow other writers to be discouraged then hey, MORE MONEY FOR ME since fewer authors will be writing new books, so more readers may take their chances on my books.
YAY, right?
Not.
We writers are not in competition with each other. Readers will always read books faster than we can write them so I'm all for keeping readers occupied with other people's work while I slave away on my next book. Let's take turns entertaining readers, yes?
And that's my final say on the topic. <3

...something I'm gradually learning not to even care about, for my sake and my readers' too. Or at least not for now. Here you'll see the average daily word counts of several famous authors, and according to this article, Nora Roberts is able to finish a novel every 45 days.
All inspirational stuff, but unfortunately it's not going to be applicable if you haven't yet developed the habit of writing every day. I wish I could write every day. But I can't, mostly because I'm not disciplined enough and secondly because of the type of romance I write.
The types of books I love to read - and write - are those that make me fall in love and cry (if they can make me laugh, that's a huge bonus, but I don't require it). It's the "crying" part that often slows me down, and it's why averages don't work for me.
Sometimes, the inspiration is right there and I'm able to finish a series in an amazingly short period of time (I used to worry about the whole "write too fast, the quality goes down" thing, but ironically, ALL of the books that I finish writing super quickly are my bestsellers). 
Other times, how to make a reader feel (and yes, that means I ultimately intend them to cry) doesn't come to me right away. Sure, I know I can finish a story by a certain date, and I don't think it's a story that readers will hate. I'm pretty sure they'll like it. But if the feels that I want aren't there, the story also won't be some thing that they'd LOVE.
And that's what I'm always gunning for when I write a book: something my readers would love, and for that to happen, I also need to pour my heart and soul in everything I write.
Unfortunately, being so emotionally invested in a book means it can take you longer to write a book. 
In the past, I used to be very hard on myself when I take too much time writing a book. I feel like this is a personal failure and that it's because I did something wrong. These days, though, I've come to realize that if the feels don't come to me right away, it's probably due to ONE REASON alone. 
I'm worrying too much about readers' expectations.
That's it. 
And it's wrong. It's great to think about what your readers want, but you have to have the right perspective about it. Most times, when I worry about readers' expectations, I worry because it's become a matter of pride - I don't want people I know to read reviews of my work that say it's shit. Other times, I worry because I'm scared that if they hate my work then I'll lose my source of income.
Those are NOT the ideal reasons to worry about what readers think.
What I usually forget - or remember too late - is the fact that readers will love what I write if I - YES, ME, YES YOU, THE AUTHOR - what I write. Because it means you gave it your all, and really that's all that matters.
I think - and this is just my personal opinion - people who are able to write every day are those who have learned the art of ignoring people's opinions about their work. I don't mean they don't accept constructive criticism, naturally. Rather, these authors know worrying about what people say about their work is pointless because you can never please everyone. You can't because it's not possible. There'll always be someone who won't like your work - hate it even - and that's okay because they're either not your target market / they simply dislike your writing. 
I hope and pray that going forward I'll be like these authors and develop a stronger immune system to public opinion. Once I do, I'll be happier and my readers will be happier because I'll be able to produce a greater number of books.
Of course, I hope for the same thing for you guys, too! <3

Can't believe it's been two years since I officially used this blog for sharing publishing tips. Feels like it's been much longer and shorter than that at the same time. I actually wanted to write this post yesterday but didn't because I had no idea what to write. I did put up a post about my resolutions, though, and well - as fate would have it - I received an email a couple of hours ago that's directly related to yesterday's post AND provides me with the perfect topic for my anniversary post.

Some of you may have heard of Bookbub. It's considered by many as the best site for newsletter promotions, and you've a really good chance of breaking to every major retailer's Top 100 overall bestselling list during your deal period.
Naturally, this type of promo isn't for free. Prices are prohibitive, especially for us Third World folks and even more so when you're writing romance. However, I personally still think it's worth every dollar. 
It's also NOT easy at all to get the site to select your book for a BB deal. Over at their blog, Bookbub initially said they receive 100 to 300 submissions per day, and only 10 to 15% of them gets selected.  Now, that number is up to 200 - 300 submissions per day, with the same acceptance rate. So like I said, NOT EASY AT ALL.
Then again, the best things in life aren't for free. They're often what you need to sweat blood and tears for, and in return victory is so much sweeter because you know your hard work's paid off.

In a nutshell: There's no guarantee, unless maybe you're J.K. Rowling or E.L. James. But seriously, there's NO guarantee, and the best thing you can do is to keep trying (without being a prick about it, more on that later).
And just so you know how much "trying" people have done, here are a couple of success stories I've gleaned from the Internet:

• Mystery / Thriller, free and discounted 
• New Adult romance, discounted (Marie Long is my hero!)
• Mystery / Thriller, KDP Select

As you can see, it's no walk in the park, BUT oh, the rewards. The rewards! Like ML, I'm still hoping one day BB can help me hit the lists, but right now I'm just over the moon that I'll have another chance to gain new readers!
Oh, and as for what I did --- well, first, a look on my submission list:

The screenshot doesn't show my first ever BBs, which were for Eternally Seduced (Boxed Set) and Nick and Lilac, because those were submitted by my former publisher.  Nor does it show the first ever BB I personally submitted (as a self-publisher), which was for The Greek Billionaire Romance Serials (Boxed Set), because back when I submitted they didn't have a dashboard for partners / authors yet.
But hey, don't worry since I'm going to share below what I *mentioned* when applying as well as BB's responses.

Submission Date: September 16
Response Date: September 23 (1 week)
Price: $.99
Selected Category: Contemporary Romance
What I said (posted in the comments box):
I'm entirely flexible with dates. This is a new boxed set and I'll only set it at $.99 for Bookbub. Book 1 was part of the Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance, which made it to NYT's combined list of ebook and print bestselling list. Books 1 to 5 have an average rating of 4.0 and above on Amazon.
Book 1 (free) - 68 reviews, 4.1 average
Book 2 ($2.99) - 65 reviews, 4.6 average
Book 3 ($2.99) - 47 reviews, 4.7 average
Book 4 ($2.99) - 58 reviews, 4.1 average
Book 5 ($2.99) - 48 reviews, 4.5 average
Response: 
Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, we no longer feature collections that contain novellas with 3D covers. In the past when we've promoted box sets like this, we've received subscriber complaints and our authors have received negative feedback. 
We appreciate your interest in working with BookBub.
P.S. I asked if they'd reconsider if I changed the cover, and they said I could always resubmit. So I did.

Submission Date: April 12
Response Date: April 14 (2 days)
Price: $.99
Category: Romantic Suspense:
What I said (posted in the comments box): 
Hi! I'm hoping you can approve my listing for Romantic Suspense. Although Part 1 of the serial starts out in college, things significantly progress from there and gets really dark by Part 3 (it's actually the darkest of all my books, as evinced in the reviews), with issues such as sexual abuse and kidnapping tackled. If not Romantic Suspense, though, I'm also good with New Adult and College Romance.
Helios is a new bundled version of my biker serial. Swish (Part 1) has over 56 reviews on Amazon and average rating of 4.4, Burn (Part 2) has 44 reviews and average rating of 4.6, while the last book Click has an average rating of 4.5 and 51 reviews. Swish was also part of the NYT and USAT bestselling boxed set Wild Rides. I hope to hear from you! Thanks. :)
Response:
Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this title for a BookBub promotion at this time.
Due to limited space in the email, we’re only able to feature about 20% of the titles that get submitted to us. The editorial team reviews all the submissions that meet our minimum guidelines for a certain category and price point, and selects the titles within that group that they believe will perform best with our members. Other titles the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers’ current tastes.
While this deal hasn’t been selected for a feature, here are some tips to make future submissions as competitive as possible:
- Submit your deal at a lower price point
- Submit other titles from your backlist
- Re-submit your title in a few months, when it might be a better fit for our readers
- Review additional tips here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/submission-tips
Please wait at least four weeks before resubmitting this title for consideration.

Submission Date: June 6
Response Date: June 9 (3 days)
Price: $.99
Category: Contemporary Romance
What I said (posted in the comments box):
Categories like Erotic Romance and New Adult Romance would work, too. Any date is fine as well. Lastly, this book has never been discounted to $.99. Thanks!
Response:
Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this book for a BookBub Featured Deal at this time.
Due to limited space in the email, we’re only able to feature about 20% of the books that get submitted to us. Our editors review all the submissions that meet our minimum guidelines for a certain category and price point, and select the books within that group that they believe will perform best with our members. Other books the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers’ current tastes.
While this book hasn’t been selected for a Featured Deal, here are some tips to make future submissions as competitive as possible:
- Submit your book for a Featured Deal at a lower price point
- Submit other books from your backlist
- Re-submit your book in a few months, when it might be a better fit for our readers
- Review more tips here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/submission-tips
Please wait at least four weeks before resubmitting this book for consideration.

Submission Date: October 6
Response Date: October 8 (2 days)
Price: FREE
Category: New Adult Romance
What I said (posted in the comments box): 
YURI has never been set free. Due to its steamy content, it would also work as a title for erotic romance.
Response:
Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this book for a BookBub Featured Deal at this time.
Due to limited space in the email, we’re only able to feature about 20% of the books that get submitted to us. Our editors review all the submissions that meet our minimum guidelines for a certain category and price point, and select the books within that group that they believe will perform best with our members. Other books the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers’ current tastes.
While this book hasn’t been selected for a Featured Deal, here are some tips to make future submissions as competitive as possible:
- Submit your book for a Featured Deal at a lower price point
- Submit other books from your backlist
- Re-submit your book in a few months, when it might be a better fit for our readers
- Review more tips here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/submission-tips
Please wait at least four weeks before resubmitting this book for consideration.

Submission Date: January 29
Response Date: ​January 30 (1 day)
Price: $.99
Category: Contemporary Romance
What I said (posted in the comments box):
It's never been priced lower than $4.99 so I'm hoping $.99 will get me a lot of downloads. I'm open to having this as a free deal if you think it would be more effective. First book of the novelized serial is free and has 90 reviews so far, with a 4.3 average rating. The other three books in the serial also have a 4+ average rating.
Response:
Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, this collection does not qualify for editorial review because it does not meet our guidelines for box sets and anthologies, which are as follows:
If a book contains multiple full-length works, it is considered a box set. All books included in the box set must be by the same author, and the majority of the books in the box set must be full length books (150+ pages for fiction, 100+ pages for nonfiction.) At least one book in the box set must meet our timing requirements: it must not have been promoted in the last six months, and it must be by an author who has not promoted a book with us in the past 30 days.
If a book contains multiple novellas or short stories (less than 150 pages), it is considered an anthology. Anthologies may contain works by a single author or multiple authors. Anthologies must have 2-dimensional covers (not box set style images), and the total pages of the anthology must meet our minimum page count requirements (150 for fiction, 100 for non-fiction.) Anthologies must contain standalone, complete works.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We appreciate your interest in working with BookBub!

Submission Date: January 29 (yes, the same day! Their rules didn't mention I couldn't submit two books on the same day so I gave it a try. And it worked!)
Response Date: February 2 (4 days)
Price: $.99
Category: Romantic Suspense
What I said (posted in the comments box):
Helios has never been priced below $4.99. First book in this serialized novel is free and has over 60 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4. Books 2 and 3 have close to 50 reviews each and with an average rating of 4.7 and 4.5 respectively.
If you think going free for Helios is more effective, I'm all for it. 
This is also considered by my readers as my darkest romance to date, which is why I think it would work in my selected category. However, since 2/3 of the novel has a university setting, it could also work well in New Adult romance. 
Response: 
Dear Marian,
Congratulations! Our editors have selected your book Helios (Full-Length Standalone Dark Billionaire Biker Romance) for a BookBub Featured Deal.
I want to note that while you chose Romantic Suspense as the suggested category in your submission, our editors have selected your deal for DARK ROMANCE & EROTICA based on where they believe it will perform best with our members’ interests. To view the date and details of your campaign, please click the button below:

• I always tell them my DATES are flexible. ALWAYS. 
• As long as I remember to, I mention that I'm open to having my book set free. :D 
• With Heart Racer, I was actually aware of their length requirements but then there was this book they featured that I believed was below 150 pages so I gave HR a try. Did not work. >.<
• With The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary Boxed Set, that's totally MY BAD. I should have made my cover 2D and let them know it's basically a serialized novel. I actually used another term in my submission (novelized serial) and I think that just made it worse. Drat! So yeah, gonna resubmit this maybe next month with a 2D cover.
• With comments, I admit to being LAZY at times. Sometimes, I just don't bother tooting my own horn, and yes this section really requires that. And I don't mind doing that if it means getting a BB deal. But sometimes, laziness gets the better of me, and yeah, MY BAD.
• Two reasons for the gaps between submissions (as you can see above, I don't submit books every week or even every month): I'm either licking my wounds (hehe) OR I don't have the budget for it yet (and you NEED to, because at times they'll schedule you for a deal just a few days after submission so you need to be prepared to pay right away).
• I do not ask for explanations about why they rejected X or Y. 
• I do not make comparisons and ask them why they accepted X's 1 or Y's 2 and not my book Z.
• I do not submit any book that has below 40 reviews. If you've read Marie Long's post (linked above), you'll notice that she was able to get a BB deal with just 15 or so reviews. I don't think I can do that hehe. So I wait until I have 40 reviews minimum before submitting a book. ​P.S. Bookbub has stated in their blog they have no minimum requirement for reviews, but they do give extra brownie points for authentic (read: verified purchases basically or those from well-known reviewers) and positive reviews. They also mention category considerations; e.g. you need more reviews for competitive categories like contemporary romance.
• I do not submit any book that has an average review score below 4.0. As mentioned above, it's all about positive reviews so I personally feel that something below 4.0 isn't positive enough for BB. 
• I don't know what their stand is on romance with Filipino characters and settings. I tried looking up if BB had anything to say about even just Asian lit or something that focuses on cultural differences but so far I've gotten nothing.

And that's it. I think I've said everything that has to be said. No special advice to give really. Numerous posts have already been written about getting a BB deal, and even Bookbub gave their own tips for submissions. For that matter, you might also be interested in checking their 2015 roundup for #AskBookbub. 
Ultimately,  I thought I should share my experience since it does show that you should never let rejection stop you. They hurt like hell yes, and no matter how many rejections you get, they'll always sting but----
Just. Got. To. Keep. Trying.

So I'm one month late for posting my 2016 resolutions, but hey - better late than never, right? 
I was actually having second thoughts about posting this because I'm not convinced it will help anyone. But then again, I'm thinking, what if it does? Wouldn't hurt to have the post up so...here it is. :D
P.S. This post is NOT about insisting that what I believe in is right. No one is being forced to follow what I'm doing. No one is being forced to agree about anything. If you find any of what I've written below as contrary to what you believe or perceive is right, let us please just agree to disagree. I have no interest in debating about whether what I think is right or not, since it's my decision, and I'm the one who's going to suffer the consequences if I'm wrong.

1. SPEND MORE ON ADS.
I suck at spending ads, but this has become increasingly necessary and if I want to stay in the game, I obviously need to play to win.

• Last year, Author X spent $$$ on ads and earned Y.
• Last year, my advertising spending was maybe 1% (I'm not even exaggerating, max is maybe 3%?) of Author X's budget. 
• Last year, Author X wrote Z number of books.
• Last year, I released double the number of Author X's books. 

You know how much I earned? Just 10% more than Author X did.
Basically, Author X's books have a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH longer tail than mine does, and one major reason why is because of my books' limited exposure / visibility due to lack of ads. And yes, you can argue that a good book will always sell. True. But a good book will also sell better and more quickly if more people know it exists. 

2. WRITE MORE STANDALONES. 
I love writing serials, but the best advertising sites are unwilling to market them. In order to gain access to these sites, I need to write more standalones, just so I can reach new readers.

3. BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH RELEASES FOR PEN NAMES.
I would like to have a better and stronger contingency in place, in case something - anything - goes wrong with my Marian Tee brand. 

And that's it. What are your 2016 resolutions?