Category: Violet and Ruby

Write Now! A Young Writer’s Guide to Getting Published–an e-book coming in 2014

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Cover copyright © 2012 Violet & Ruby Productions
Coming early 2014 for $1.99. 
Will be available at places such as BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com.
WRITE NOW! A YOUNG WRITER’S GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED is a Violet & Ruby Productions e-book.
The forward . . .
WHAT THIS BOOK IS AND ISN’T
Write Now! A Young Writer’s Guide to Getting Published focuses on getting your work in print–whether it’s a book, magazine article, or commentary in a school newspaper. It also discusses hooking an agent. This guide covers self-publishing versus traditional publishing, writing a strong query letter, hooking an agent, what goes on behind the scenes at a major publishing house, and the top ten mistakes writers make that cause rejection. 
It’s co-written by an author (Jessica Burkhart) with 20 published books by Simon & Schuster and Kate Angelella, a Simon & Schuster editor turned full-time writer. We’re offering you the best of both worlds—advice from an author and words of wisdom from a former editor. 
This isn’t a how-to-write guide. If you’re looking for guidance about formatting your manuscript to industry standards, developing ideas, curing writer’s block and several other similar topics, another e-book addressing these topics will be coming soon from Violet & Ruby. If you enjoy the advice that Kate and I offer about publication then I hope you will consider our future e-books about writing. Even if you’ve already completed a manuscript, our upcoming “how to” guides will help you make sure your creation is as ready as possible to head out into the world.
When Kate and I talked about this e-book, our goal was to offer advice to young writers seeking publication–advice we wished we would have as young writers. We both receive many e-mails with questions on how to publish a novel and this guide gives you the steps to begin your journey. 
If you’re ready, grab a snack and get comfy. Kate and I are ready to spill all of our secrets to getting published with you!

Text copyright © 2013 Violet & Ruby Productions. May not be reprinted without the permission of the authors.

Couple of cool things

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Aladdin MIX’s 5th anniversary is coming up. They’re giving authors FlipCams to film some fun Q&As and a few other things. The idea made the Wall Street Journal. Cool! Check out “Writers Get Close in Video Interview.”

Kate and I also have an account on Smashwords. (Thanks, Bri!) We’ll likely be selling our e-books there in addition to other outlets. Here’s our profile. 🙂

I’m finally back on Publishers Marketplace. I added (first time ever) a project that’s available. Since I’ve been unagented for almost 2 years, I thought it was time to get an account for my projects in progress. If you’re looking for a YA verse proposal, e-mail me for more details. Plus, there are details about the packager work Kate and I are doing with Violet & Ruby.

Dominate release date! Get ready!

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Cross-posted from Violet & Ruby!

Wellington Prep . . . where dark secrets and dangerous lies are meant to be found out.

We have an *official* release date to share!



Dominate (Wellington Prep #1) will release on
March 11, 2011!

We’ll provide all the links on that day (it’s not available for pre-order), but you’ll be able to purchase it via Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for your e-reader devices. They will be priced at $2.99. (Um, can you say “killer deal!”)

Dominate will be a perf weekend read, so that’s why we chose Friday as “The Day.”

As we’ve mentioned, it’s not going to be available in physical stores. It’s the first e-novella (a shorter form of an e-novel) installment in the Wellington Prep series. You’ll have to download each e-novella to keep the juicy mystery and the horse-centered drama going. Each e-novella will add up to a complete e-book. 🙂 We’ve already come up with titles for the next two and we can’t wait to share them! Plotting and writing these have been a blast for two besties like Kate and me.

So, YAY! We’re veeerrry excited and hope you are, too! The blog will be filled with fun posts and giveaways that week–def keep checking back!

It’s beyond exciting to be bringing you the first project from Violet & Ruby Productions!

Cross post from Violet & Ruby

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Kate wrote this post and I wanted to share it with all of you! Find the original post here. 🙂

VIOLET AND RUBY, BFFS 4-EVER!

So, this website is the first visible evidence of me and my best friend going into business together. It’s like a childhood dream, owning a company with your BFF. But as you grow up, it seems like a really, really bad idea. You think about the fights you might get in—over money, who gets to make all the decisions, who is better at doing whatever and who is jealous and why. You worry someone might get hurt and, ultimately, you worry that you’ll ruin your friendship.

But you know what? I’ve never had that worry about Violet & Ruby. And there are two reasons why.
One: I never knew the true meaning of “best friend” until I met mine a few years ago. Sure, I’d had friends I’d worn friendship bracelets with, or made BFF friendship notebooks with—notebooks that declared “best friends forever!” But this girl, she means so much more to me than a bracelet or a notebook. When we hang out, I never get bored or annoyed with her and wonder when she’ll leave or when I can go home. I can spend all day and night with her and call her when she gets home and still have a marathon phone call with her. We finish each others’ sentences, love the same things, own many of the same items of clothing, and get asked almost everywhere we go if we’re sisters.
Two: I met my bestie DOING business. We were in business together first, and became best friends later. We were partnered together, long distance, as author and editor on a series called CANTERWOOD CREST. We started talking on the phone once in a while about things non-Canterwood-related. But then something life-changing happened. I learned I was going to have to get a spinal fusion surgery. Even though I’m an adult, the idea of surgery on my back terrified me! I told my friend over the phone, who also happened to have had that same surgery—and she was amazing. Even though she was nervous for me, she talked to me all about her experience and made me feel so much better and like everything was going to be all right.
During the time I was out of work to recover from surgery (two months!), and even though one of us lived in Brooklyn and one in Florida, we talked every day for at least a couple hours a day. We planned the time in advance, both made tea before our calls, and spent hours talking and laughing and telling each other things about ourselves that we’d never told anyone else. Eventually, we visited each other and decided we couldn’t live so far apart. Just three months later, we were both living in the same exact neighborhood in Brooklyn!
We decided to start Violet & Ruby one night when we were painting our nails. We have a ton of beauty rituals that we do together all the time—facemasks, mani/pedis, online lip-gloss shopping, and slew of shared accessories. We started talking about how cool it would be if we made a blog where we posted about all of our favorite things: fave glosses, makeup, nail polish, TV shows, books, etc.
We agreed on the blog . . . and then Violet & Ruby became Violet & Ruby Productions. The latter still included the sparkly website, but it also included something just as cool: a packaging company partnership that consisted of just the two of us. We’d brainstorm the way we always did for Canterwood—but we’d brainstorm ideas for other books and novellas and then we’d write them together! A few months later, here we are. Our first real project, with an e-novella close to being published! And you know what? Every day has been so much fun. We don’t fight, we haven’t stopped finishing each others’ sentences, and we’ve already come up with a ton of ideas we’re both super proud of—ideas we can’t wait to execute together.
Cheers to that old middle school saying that we’ve both discovered is as true when you’re an adult as when you’re in middle school or high school: BFFs 4ever!
xx,
Violet & Ruby

oh, tax joy

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Not, lol. 8+ hours later over 2 days, I’m getting close to finishing taxes. Yay!

That’s the biz side of writing–the numbers and figures. I can’t do math to save my life. I failed math in 6th and 7th grade. Not even a tutor or my friends could save me. 🙂

But I’m almost done and then . . . I’m outlining INITIATION and working on DOMINATE with Kate. Soooo exciting to have a new series to work on. Violet & Ruby Productions is going to be putting out the hottest, most fun e-book novellas for tweens and teens.Be sure to follow us on Twitter: @Violet_and_Ruby

I can’t wait for you guys to read our first project! Be sure to scroll below and leave a comment (it can be anonymous if you like) or email me with a question for our PINKY SWEAR novella. How cool would it be to see your question in print? We’re already getting a lot of great questions about friendships, so keep them coming.

xoxo

Welcome to Wellington Prep!

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Cover copyright © 2011 Violet & Ruby

Yay! Kate and I are very excited to share the cover and title for the first novella in our upcoming e-book series, WELLINGTON PREP. The title is dominate. 🙂 It will be available soon for download from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for a killer price. Get your e-readers ready!

Here’s the teaser again:

Wellington Prep: home to the notorious Jasmine King. And if you think Jasmine’s a mean girl . . . meet the one who taught her everything she knows.

The release date will be coming soon!

Happy Saturday!

Editor K is now Author/Writer K!

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Hi, guys!

I am beyond excited to share some news! My best friend has come over to the dark side 😉 and is now a full-time writer/freelance-editor. She is no longer with Simon & Schuster after a wonderful four years of editing award winning books, many series and some fab stand-a-lones, she is now pursuing her dream as a writer. I could not be happier or more proud. (Um, plus, that means we get to write together every day in our pajamas. Woot!)

We have teamed up to form Violet & Ruby and soon we’ll be bringing you the hottest, most fun e-book novellas for you to download via Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. (They will not be available in physical book stores–only online.) They’ll be published under Jessica Ashley & Kate Angelella.

Want a teaser of an e-book novella coming to you soon in forty page installments? How about this?

Wellington Prep: home to the notorious Jasmine King. And if you think Jasmine’s a mean girl . . . meet the one who taught her everything she knows.

A title reveal, cover and more will be coming VERY soon, so stay tuned! 🙂

Team Canterwood, don’t worry! Kate is staying with us! She would never leave the series and will continue to edit Canterwood Crest, have input on our beautiful covers and make sure we give you what you deserve–awesome books.

Writers–if anyone is looking for a freelance-editor, Kate’s your girl. Her rates are reasonable and she’s incredibly talented. Contact her through her Website if you want more info.

Later in the week, look for pics and video from my B&N signing. There were a lot of surprises and secrets revealed that you’ll get here.

Finally, we’re working on a project and we need YOUR input. If you’d like the possible opportunity to see your first name and age (or make up a name if you like) in one of our e-books, post any questions you have here about friendships, keeping friends, losing friends, mean girls, etc. Ask away and you might find your question answered in a novella coming soon from us! 🙂

xoxo