M.J. ROSE

Her Sizzling Signs of Success

by Rose Murray

Novelist M.J. Rose is a shining example of achieving spectacular fame and fortune through the internet. Her self-published electronic novel, LIP SERVICE, was the first e-novel to be noticed on the net and picked up by New York publishing giants. Her story has been featured in such magazines as Time, Forbes, Publishers Weekly, and on national television.

As an author of e-novels myself, I was particularly interested in the story of how M.J. Rose promoted her novel to success. As an astrologer, I was dying to know what her chart looked like. I'm always eager to see what astrological factors in what combination can produce extraordinary events and people.

M.J., who had never had her horoscope done, was also interested when I contacted her. She sent me her birth data.

When I first looked at her chart, a strong Capricorn/Scorpio influence stood out, helping to explain the intense drive and direction of this cool, classy novelist who writes "erotica for the intelligent woman."

In case you didn't know, Scorpio is the most determined, resourceful, intense and sexy sign in the zodiac. Capricorn is cool, classy, businesslike and more lusty than most people imagine.

When you combine liberal amounts of Capricorn ambition with Scorpio passion, you get movers and shakers like General George S. Patton, x-rated novelist Henry Miller, royal mistress Madame de Pompadour, or entrepreneur Diane von Furstenberg.

Half of M. J.'s planets reside in Capricorn and Scorpio. She has all the right planets in all the right places for writing an intriguing, highly-original novel like LIP SERVICE and for promoting it into a major publishing success.

Indications of writing and publishing potential show plainly in her chart. Her best career aspect combines literary talent (Mercury conjunct Venus) with publishing good fortune (a trine from this planetary pair to Pluto in the ninth house.)

Her publishing strengths involve Plutonian themes, such as psychology, transformation, empowerment, mystery, and sexuality-- all found in LIP SERVICE.

When the novel was first offered to major print publishers several years ago, however, LIP SERVICE was rejected. Editors loved it, but their marketing personnel shuddered. A story about a sensitive woman's foray into the world of phone sex seemed a bit too risky. It didn't quite fit any of their marketing categories.

Fortunately, M.J.'s lucky stars also show stunning success through any subject associated with the planet Uranus (Uranus favorably sextiles her Midheaven of career). Extra strong influence from this planet in one's chart encourages originality, independence, inventions, and interest in such subjects as science, technology, astrology, computers, and--the INTERNET!

The internet became M.J.'s electronic road to mega success. In personally promoting her novel on the web, it probably helped to have Sagittarius rising. The enthusiastic, expansive nature of this sign on the Ascendant is ideal for promoting ideas and products. Helpful too was her Mercury, the planet of communication, also in friendly, energetic Sagittarius.

So, with Capricorn/Scorpio strategy and Sagittarian zeal, she mapped out a master plan to connect with readers. She would test market LIP SERVICE by offering it as an electronic download on the web.

First, she determined her target audience to be smart women who liked to read provocative books and who felt comfortable with their own sexuality. Then she went to work to find these woman. Using search engines she compiled long lists of women-friendly, book-oriented websites.

She emailed hundreds of these sites, requesting a review or mention of her book. She also offered free informative 500-word articles in exchange for a link to her book on her own sales site.

In three months, her novel was mentioned on more than fifty sites. Sales of LIP SERVICE soared. She was on the right track.

Her astrological timing was right on track too. Throughout January and February of 1998, entrepreneurial, go-for-broke Jupiter had charged through the literary sector of her chart, forming lucky trines to one after another of the powerful line-up of four planets in her eleventh house of friends, hopes and wishes. By early, March 1998, she was online, set to go.

At the same time, in 1998, M.J. was almost at the end of a major life-changing transit of the planet Pluto. It had been going back and forth over her Sagittarian Ascendant since early 1997, transforming her outlook on life, self-image, and her way of relating to the world. The final transit would be in October 1998. It is on the final transit that loose ends are usually cleared up and the transformation is complete.

It was right after the final Pluto transit that she finalized the marketing plans she'd been testing for LIP SERVICE and went full throttle ahead with them. In January, sales were soaring. Then on February 5, 1999, her big break came. The print world began to take notice. The Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild found LIP SERVICE for sale on Amazon.com and snapped it up to offer to their readers as an alternate selection.

Then, major print publisher Pocket Books wanted to go all out with a hard-cover version of LIP SERVICE. That version hit the book stores on August 17, 1999.

In astrology, there are "big break years" when opportunities suddenly arrive for those who are to make it to the top. For M. J., 1999 was her year. In the chart of any celebrity, you can find the astrological aspects pretty much the same when they hit the big time. Most often there will be progressed aspects between Sun and Jupiter, Midheaven and Jupiter, or Midheaven and Sun.

Author Margaret Mitchell, for instance, saw GONE WITH THE WIND first hit the bookstores in May 1936 when her progressed Sun was conjunct her progressed Jupiter. Not only that, but transiting Jupiter was conjunct the same degree, a most amazing line- up.

In M.J.'s case, her progressed Sun had moved forward to trine her converse Jupiter. This year-long Sun/Jupiter aspect was already in effect on February 5, when the book club discovered her online. In addition, both Sun and Jupiter were trining converse Neptune, forming a grand trine. And progressed Sun had connected with natal Pluto head-on from the literary to the publishing sectors of her chart.

An aspect like this could occur once in a lifetime--but only for those with extremely fortunate charts.

The Sun/Jupiter/Neptune grand trine, however, was to repeat the following year as well, focusing on natal Neptune this time. The year 2000 promised to be an especially bountiful year as M.J.'s progressed Sun, the ruler of publishing in her chart, surged forward to trine imaginative, mystical, magical natal Neptune.

Both Sun and Neptune were still in trine to converse Jupiter. Appropriately impressive events accompanied the astrological line- up. In January 2000, an M.J. Rose non-fiction book was chosen by the same two book clubs to be the summer's featured alternate selection. This was HOW TO PUBLISH AND PROMOTE ON LINE, which M.J. had written with Angela Adair-Hoy. Print rights to that book were soon purchased by another publishing giant, St. Martin's Press.

That spring, many new projects were in the works, and one was already online. Beginning in April 2000, M.J.'s novella, PRIVATE PLACES, was offered in serialized downloads by Mightywords.com, where the complete version is now available.

That summer Pocket Books released LIP SERVICE in trade paperback, right around the time that the Sun/Neptune aspect peaked. The aspect was exact on August 22, 2000, and would continue to bring new creative ideas, projects and publishing good fortune for months to come.

Three days after the aspect was exact, knowing nothing about her chart, I had the impulse to contact M. J. Rose about this article. My query must have been just one of a multitude of nice events that peaked around that time. (Astrology works, whether you're watching the aspects or not.)

The grand trine mentioned above will still be in effect in January 2001 when M.J.'s latest novel, IN FIDELITY, will be released by Pocket Books.

During the same month, St. Martin's Press will release HOW TO PUBLISH AND PROMOTE ON LINE to the bookstores.

As for the future, M.J.'s career promises continued expansion and good fortune. As her progressed Sun plows forward to trine her Moon, Mars, and Saturn in passionate Scorpio, she could wll be inspired to write and publish a variety of books, dealing with important, deeply-felt issues in her life.

Transiting Jupiter had taken this same route in her chart in early 1998 when M.J. was making plans to promote LIP SERVICE on the net. Jupiter, however, covered that ground in a couple of months. Progressed Sun will trace the same route over a period of the next thirteen years. And, in astrology, the slower moving the planetary influence, the greater the impact.

There's much to indicate that the good times will continue even after that series of progressions are done.

It looks as if we'll be seeing successful M. J. Rose novels and books in the stores and on the net for years to come.

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