Category: marketing

Coming Soon!

book reviewing / Letters to Follow / marketing / reading

Coming Soon!

Letters to Follow-A Dancer’s Adventure, my last book in the ballet trilogy, is being shipped. That means I’ll soon hold it in my hands and then start planning how to get out the word about it. It’s much like anything new we start: the anticipation keeps us up nights, the event arrives, and then we must get busy by putting on the finishing touches; in this case sharing/marketing the book. My favorite way to work is events or chances to talk with readers directly. I can read from the book, answer their questions, and talk about whatever people want to...

Upcoming Book Events for When the Music Stops-Dance On

interviews / marketing / musings / When the Music Stops

Upcoming Book Events for When the Music Stops-Dance On

When the Music Stops-Dance On has a publication date of Sept. 15th. To celebrate the release of this, book two in the ballet series, I have events planned and YOU’RE INVITED! *** Thursday, September 24th 7 PM at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park *** Thursday, October 15th drop-in between 5 and 8 PM to the Edmonds Bookshop (It’s Art Walk Thursday!) *** Saturday, October 24th at 2 PM at the Barnes and Noble in the Kitsap Mall (Silverdale) PLUS: Invite me to your book club meeting, live or via Skype, most anytime over the next months. If you’re...

After A Book is Printed

book reviewing / marketing / musings

After A Book is Printed

Now the author can relax? Right? Nope. By the time a book is published, the author should be deep into marketing the book. How else will anyone know it’s out there waiting to be read? Are people sharing my bookmarks and information with others? Only if I make them and myself available. Most authors wish they could wiggle their noses and…poof…the world would know about the book, be rushing out to buy it, and be writing reviews. After all we’re one of only 300,000 books (or more) published each year in the U.S. Why wouldn’t everyone know about our fresh...

After the Story is Written

marketing / When the Music Stops

After the Story is Written

I used to think after I wrote the words and sent the book to be printed I was finished. Not so! That’s when the real work begins as I strive to locate reviewers as well as readers. Like most authors, this phase pushes me w-a-y outside my comfort zone. It involves lots of additional writing and decision-making as well as additional expenses. Here’s my list of tasks for (WMS) When the Music Stops-Dance On: 1.  Send unbound copy of WMS to Library of Congress. ($) 2.  Have e-book produced to begin collecting reviews. This also becomes the kindle/Nook book.($) 3.  ...

Beyond Writing Your Story

marketing / musings

Beyond Writing Your Story

The world of publishing a book extends far beyond writing ‘the book’. It includes editing, watching the publisher lay out the book, waiting for the book to arrive in the mail, plus the HUGE task of marketing the book. Like many writers, I find the marketing belongs in my third brain: one that I’ve yet to gain a full understanding of or conquer, as it were. It’s a new world of excel sheets, sending out media kits, contacting related businesses and persons who might share an interest in my book’s topic of dancing and growing up. It’s finding time to...

Out to Launch, not Lunch

marketing / musings

Out to Launch, not Lunch

The appearance of a blog hiatus is really a shift in gears for a few months. It’s been an intensive course in media kit development! I’ve written and rewritten, edited and reorganized the various pages of the kit in an effort to create a thoughtful, informational landing spot for people curious about who I am and what I write. The media kit supports my debut novel, 84 Ribbons, my newest book launch. Since I’ve moved from non-fiction to women’s fiction, my media shifted as well. Now I’ve embarked on a different sort of writing: not non-fiction and not fiction writing....

Are You on Pitch?

marketing / writer reminders

Are You on Pitch?

Writing a pitch for a story or book is a tricky thing: it’s short, it needs to interest the prospective reader and it needs to express the essence of the story without giving away the storyline. It’s short. Write the pitch for your current project. Can you do it in 100 words? 50 words? 25 words? or like an elevator pitch’s 4-seconds? It’s interesting. Could what you write become the grabber listed on the back cover? Your choice of nouns and verbs is critical. It’s an overview. The pitch needs to hint at setting, main character and the story problem....