When I first encountered Kirsten Saell online, I think it was in one of the discussions that sometimes crops up in the romance community, namely: why isn’t there more lesbian romance? When I found out that Kirsten writes romances with F/F content, *and* set in fantasy worlds, I knew I had to read her books. And I love them.
Today, as part of our continuing ebook week celebrations, Kirsten is giving away to one lucky commenter a copy of Crossing Swords, the first book in her Emmissaries of Belthalis series. This book contains one of my all-time favorite heroines! Here’s the blurb:
One duel. Easy money. Then Gil fell for his opponent.
A straight duel to the death. A professional opponent who’s paying him to win. This was going to be the easiest money Gil had ever earned. Except he never counted on his opponent being a woman. And he never counted on falling for her.
After avenging the brutal murder of her lover, all Lianon wants is to die a clean death. Too bad the man she hired doesn’t do women, and he’s furious over her deception. Not only does he renege on their contract, he has the gall to lock her up in his apartment—naked, no less!—to punish her for her ruse.
If she could just get her mind out of the gutter, she’d cut him a new smile. But ever since he saw through her boy’s clothes, all she can think about is getting him naked, too.
But just when she’s found something to live for, the father of her lover’s murderer surfaces. He wants Lianon to die screaming—and he’s all too happy to take Gil down with her.
Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, including f/f; bad language; violence; bland, rubbery veal; a little sexual healing; and one killer blowjob.
You can read an excerpt Here..
Please welcome Kirsten Saell!
*******
How long have you been epublished?
I’ve been epublished with Samhain since March of 2008, and have three books out. I had the contract for my first book, Crossing Swords, in hand in September of 2007.
What made you decide to go the route of epublishing?
I was about 250 000 words into an enormous doorstopper of an epic fantasy project, and was just starting to seriously research potential agents/publishers for it. I sent out a handful of queries, got a handful of rejections (a couple of them quite encouraging), but in the interim, I’d met a few people online, and one of them–December Quinn–had a few books out with epublishers like Whiskey Creek Press and Ellora’s Cave. I hung out on her blog for a while and learned a bit about epublishing (I’d had no idea there was such a thing), and a genre I’d never heard of before called erotic romance. I’d read my share of straight-up porn, and it was good for *coughcough* one-handed reading, but the emotional element was always missing for me. Maybe this erotic romance was just the ticket.
I purchased December’s WCP book, Prince of Death and loved it. Next, I stumbled across Kate Pearce’s Antonia’s Bargain, and again, I was amazed. I mean their stuff made Bertrice Small look like a prude, yet the stories were well-written and emotionally engaging, as well as damn hot. As I gobbled up more books in the genre–some wonderful, others not so much–I began to realize this was what I wanted to write. Even in my BFF (big fat fantasy), my characters had a tendency to fall for each other and then into bed, and although I usually closed the door on that part of their stories, the sex scenes would continue to play in my head long after they’d faded to black on the page. In fact, I’d deleted a ton of sex from that project because I thought it wouldn’t be well-received by editors. Imagine my delight at the notion that I could put it all in one nice package–a well-developed fantasy world, interesting stories, well-rounded characters, and smokin’ hot smexing.
I had an opening scene I’d written years before (18, to be precise), but I’d had no idea where to take the characters, despite the fact that I’d thought about them a lot in the intervening years. After my first taste of erotic romance, all of a sudden, I knew what their story would be. Not epic, no fate-of-the-world stuff, just a love story with lots of swordplay, a little revenging and a boatload of heat. And I knew it would be aimed at an epublisher, because it wasn’t destined to be a three-book doorstopper, and I honestly had no idea what NY imprint it would fit into. It practically wrote itself over the next three months. I spent some time researching epublishers’ guidelines and purchasing their books to get a feel for the quality of the editing, and Samhain topped my list. Their submissions were closed for months, but I was patient, submitted, and got lucky on the first try.
What do you use to read your ebooks?
I used to use my laptop. I’ve never really had an issue with reading off a screen. But it’s heavy and clunky and it overheats if you don’t use a chill-mat or prop it up, so reading in bed or the tub or in the car was not an option. I’d been looking at the Sony PRS readers for a while, and I loved the idea of e-ink. Read in full sun? Oh yeah! Carry a hundred books in your purse? I’m so there. When my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, there was no humming or hawing from me like in previous years. She got me a 505 and I love love love it. I can’t even begin to say how much. Don’t know how I managed before I had it.
Where do you see the epublishing industry headed in the future?
I’m hoping the growth it’s experienced in the last year is just the tip of the iceberg for epublishing. More and more mainstream NY books are now offered in digital format, though their sales aren’t skyrocketing as they should, in my opinion, because of DRM and list prices that are simply unrealistic. If those issues get ironed out, the sky’s pretty much the limit for digital publishing. Dedicated epublishers have a good handle on the market as far as price and user-friendliness, and I think if mainstream publishers follow their lead, they’ll enjoy huge success with the format. And with Oprah’s endorsement of Amazon’s Kindle, and Sony’s success with their ereaders, people are starting to realize ebooks won’t keep you chained to your computer anymore. As more readers become aware of the benefits of ebooks, I think we’ll see successes all over the genre map, not just erotica and erotic romance.
And I think it can be wonderful for authors as well. Most epublishers don’t offer advances, but they can and do offer things print publishers don’t–higher royalties that can be paid almost immediately due to the non-existence of returns, and a long tail. In print publishing, shelf space is at a premium. A book has a few months to prove itself (sometimes not even that much), then it’s either remaindered (for no royalty), or stripped and returned (again, no benefit to the author, and no recompense for the publisher, either). It’s my hope that in the future, between ebooks and print-on-demand technology, the only reason for a book to ever go “out of print” is if the author and/or publisher want it to.
Who are some of your favorite epublished writers?
I adore Bonnie Dee. She writes for a few different epublishers, in a variety of subgenres, and I’ve been impressed by everything of hers I’ve tried. Ciar Cullen writes wonderful fantasy romance, though not erotic. Emily Veinglory, who writes m/m romance, has one of the most engaging writing voices I’ve read in a long time. Michele deLully writes some edgy romantic erotica and again, has a great voice. Gia Dawn, Bettie Sharpe, Evie Byrne, all great (and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few). I’ve recently been reading a totally blammo epic fantasy series by Brent Weeks, that’s published by Orbit in both print and digital. And of course, my intros to the format–December Quinn and Kate Pearce, who have both moved on to NY publishers, and without whose books I might never have given epublishing a second look. Thanks, guys. 
*****
I love your list of recommendations! Several of the things you’ve said have me thinking I need to be checking out a few new to me authors, too!
Thanks for playing, Kirsten!