Rabbits in love?
Look at that cute little bunny on the cover. You can’t get much more adorable than that.
I love rabbits
Article: Destiny Kaus – A&C Writer
[dropcaps round=”no”]W[/dropcaps]hat do you get when you come across a sweet writer, sweet characters, and a sweet storyline? A sweet book. More specifically, a historical romance entitled Love’s Magic written by seasoned author Killarney Sheffield.
Since Sheffield has published nine books in her writing career, she clearly has all the inside info about what life in the publishing world is really like.
“Everybody thinks that you write a book and you publish it and you sit back and collect royalties,” says Sheffield. “That is not how it works.”
Wait. What? That’s not how it works? Dang. Apparently you actually have to do *gasp* work when you want something published.
Sheffield says, “Just to write the books takes me about three months. Then you usually go through about a month’s worth of edits with a publisher…then there are websites to build and blogs to write.”
In other words, getting a book published is not just a bunch of happy, fluffy kittens floating above the earth on cottony clouds; it takes oodles of time, dedication, and marketing knowledge.
For her newest book Love’s Magic, Sheffield had to think outside of the blogger’s box (that does not sound right) to promote her work.
“Love’s Magic has a rabbit in it,” says Sheffield. “He is kind of my heroine’s side kick. So, what I did was I found rabbit blogs on the internet and said ‘Hey, I have this rabbit in my book, can I come and talk to you guys about rabbits?’”
This sounds like pure brilliance to me. And, her strategy worked, because I mean, heck, what rabbit blog wouldn’t want some excess rabbit material to post on its blog site?
Unfortunately though, marketing takes a lot more work than writing blogs about rabbits. Why? Sheffield explains.
“There’s not a lot of people out there who say ‘Hey this is how it’s done,’” Sheffield says. “It’s kind of like raising kids; there’s no manual.”
After hearing this, I don’t really want to publish books…or raise kids…
Anyway, after facing rejection from various publishers, Sheffield ended up publishing with Crimson Romance: a publishing company that actually held a nice little contest, which Sheffield entered.
She says, “They offered to teach their authors how to market their books. And I went ‘Hey this is something no other publisher is doing. This is something I can really benefit from.’”
After the contest results came in *drum roll please* Sheffield placed second and got into the marketing course. Huzzah!
She says, “Holy man have I learned a lot in six months.”
Overall, this marketing course has helped Sheffield promote Love’s Magic: a book about a rabbit, love, and much more.
“It’s a female magician, her black rabbit, a Duke who’s gotten himself into a whole lot more than he bargained for, a treasure map, and a band of pirates,” says Sheffield. “And from there, the book just turns into mayhem.”
How does this book end? Well, SPOILER ALERT! Just kidding. But, seriously, apparently the rabbit kicks butt throughout the whole story.
“You gotta love the rabbit,” Sheffield says. “He’s actually based on a rabbit that we had as a pet here for many years. I just had to add him to the book because this rabbit was like Houdini reincarnated.”
Personally, when I think of rabbits, I think of puffy little, cute, hopping creatures, not magical, sincerely skilled, kick-butt rabbits like Sheffields’. Her take on rabbits is definitely unique, but super cool, in my opinion.
And, what are Sheffields’ plans for the future?
She says, “Well, of course like every writer, I hope to have a New York Times Best Sellers one day. That’s every author’s dream…but basically, I just hope to be able to write until I can’t write anymore.”
Perhaps I will see Sheffield in New York if I ever get my arse off the couch and publish some stuff.
[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Killarney Sheffield[/button]
