Ruth Kaufman - Award-Winning Author and Romance Writer

Ruth Kaufman is the author of My Life as a Star, My Life as an Extra, My Once & Future Love, The Bride Tournament, Follow Your Heart, At His Command and other books.

Why do YOU read historical romance? Join us tomorrow, 5/29.

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I’m honored to be a Historical Romance Network author along with some of my favorite historical authors, including Madeline Hunter and Jo Beverley.

We hope you’ll join HRN authors and historical romance readers across the world tomorrow, May 29, on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr  for  #WhyIReadHistoricals day. Authors will share why they wrote or read certain historical romances, or why we write/read them in general. 

And we want to know why you read historical romance. What draws you to books set in other time periods? Which do you prefer, and why? Which historicals are on your keeper shelf? Are you drawn to alpha heroes and kilts? Pirates? Dukes, rakes and women on the shelf? Knights with swords and castles? Settings in countries other than England and Scotland? 

Who are your favorite authors, and why?
What prompts you to try a new-to-you author: covers, blurbs, reviews, time period, or something else? 

My favorite historicals are medievals, which is why I write them. Some of my favorite keeper shelf books are by Kathleen Woodiwiss (The Wolf and the Dove), Roberta Gellis (Alinor: Roselynde Chronicles Book 2), Madeline Hunter (By Design), Julie Garwood (Honor’s Splendour) and Judith McNaught (Kingdom of Dreams).

Thanks to HRN member Kris Kennedy, who was instrumental in putting this together.

The Week After Release Day

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My release day January 21 was so much fun, including a celebration later in the evening.  

Highlights of the first week include:

  • Getting an email saying that Publisher’s Weekly has selected the Historical Romance Version for review (out of thousands of submissions). They also said there’s a small chance the review won’t be published. Assuming it is, I think it’ll be in PW and on BookLife, their indie publishing site. Of course I’m hoping they say good things….
  • Romance Writers of America asked me to write a new monthly column for their eNotes e-newsletter called Author Experiment Case Studies. I featured mine, publishing two versions of the same book, this week. I look forward to seeing what other author experiments I come across and how well they worked.
  • The USAToday HEA Romance Unlaced blog by Madeline Hunter for which I was interviewed to feature both versions was shared on Facebook 127 times, tweeted 60 times (including a tweet to HEA’s 14.6K followers), and posted 9 times on LinkedIn.
  • Making Amazon’s Hot New Releases lists with both versions in their respective categories.
  • I guest posted on the topic “When are you done,” at Seekerville, one of Writers Digest’s top 100 sites for authors, and enjoyed chatting with the commenters. And I was asked to guest on another romance blog…awaiting details. 
  • Receiving my print copies in the mail. Holding the book you wrote, with your name on it in huge letters is wonderful.
  • Amazon suggested I might like my own book.
Lowlights include:
  • Frustration trying to figure out how to upload the print versions to B&N and iBooks (which sends you to iTunes and is generally un-user friendly).
  • Not being able to instantly satisfy those who wanted to buy my book in a store. I haven’t worked on that because of the time it takes that may not yield the desired result. If I’m fortunate to get good reviews from valued sources, they might pave the way on a difficult path.
  • Time management. I enjoy guest posting on blogs, but writing different posts for each and requesting spots can be time consuming. Chatting with commenters is a lot of fun, but the guest should check in often throughout the day, which can be distracting.
What’s to come? Stay tuned…

AT HIS COMMAND now available in paperback & print!

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There’s only one first release day for every author. Back in the day, you might go to a bookstore to view your book on an actual shelf, and maybe you’d sign the stock. In these digital days of indie publishing, my release day yesterday was online.

An exciting development was my interview in USAToday’s HEA Romance Unlaced blog written by bestseller Madeline Hunter, Seeking shelter from the heat? So far that’s been posted to Facebook over 100 times, tweeted 56 times and posted on LinkedIn 9 times.

Supportive friends and colleagues tweeted, shared, posted and commented on Facebook, and informed me of their purchases.

I spent a lot of time on social media and email, and participated in Marketing for Romance Writers’ #MFRWHooks and meet the #MFRWauthor promotion.

I refreshed my sales reports and Amazon Hot New Releases every so often, and was thrilled to watch both ebook versions climb in their respective categories throughout the day, and though they went online later in the day, the print versions showed up on the lists, too. As of this writing, AT HIS COMMAND-Historical Romance Version is #21 in Medieval Historical Romance…so close to making it to the first page. And the Inspirational Version is #39 in Historical Inspirational Romance. Will they climb higher? Stay tuned.

At His Command e-books are on Amazon Pre-order!

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Success! I figured out how create my Kindle Direct Publishing account and upload both e-book versions for pre-order.

The historical romance version, with the hero on the cover, is here.  The inspirational version, which features the heroine on the cover, is here. Pre-ordered e-books will automatically be delivered to Kindles on January 14, 2015.  Print versions will be available then, also, I hope.

I’ve been fortunate to get these great cover quotes for the historical romance version:

A wonderful debut sure to please lovers of romance!
  —NYT & USA Today bestselling author Madeline Hunter
With a bold knight and a strong-willed lady, Kaufman’s story is positively medieval.

    — NYT & USA Today bestselling author Tracy Anne Warren

And this one for the inspirational version: 

A richly textured tale of love, danger, and history. 
— NYT & USA Today bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

Which will sell better?

I’m also doing a series of guest blog posts. My first was yesterday, at romanceuniversity.org, here, on Writing the Inspirational Historical: How Much is Too Much.  I’ll be posting next month on another topic on Seekerville, a popular inspirational romance site, and have other posts in the works.

I enjoy blogging and looking for other opportunities to guest or write articles much more than all of the publisher-y self-publishing steps, yet it’s time consuming and I need to get manuscripts two through four ready to release….

I’m also experimenting with getting the word out via a press release…and will post about that soon.