So, this was not my first NaNoRodeo, as many of you loyal readers already know. This was my 7th consecutive NaNowin. I am so proud! I don’t always know what I will be writing, but this year I did.
I almost never write an outline prior to starting, but this year I did.
I always build in a buffer of five days in case I something comes up and I have to take a day off from writing, but that didn’t happen this year. I finished five days early!
I didn’t really look at my outline much as I was writing, but when I finished I discovered I had covered everything!
One thing that was the same this year is this: once I started writing, the words flowed out in a smooth (mostly) stream. I remembered not to edit as I was going and not to over think it, which is the death of all good “shitty first drafts” (nod to Anne Lamotte’s Bird by Bird).
As I mentioned in my prior blog post, there is a definite learning curve to this whole ‘promoting your book’ thing. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: assume nothing! (Remember Felix Unger’s lesson on what happens when you ASSUME?!).
Anyway, here are what I think are the top 10 tips (in no particular order) for having a successful (eg: well attended) author reading.
Create a Facebook event (you can figure it out; it’s not hard) and then share it on your own page, your author page, and the pages of any friends that will have you.
Make an author page on Facebook, if you haven’t done that yet.
Design some flyers (this can be as simple as a photo of your book, the date, time, and place of your event) and put them up around the town where you’ll be speaking (grocery stores, hairdressers, health food stores…any place that has a community bulletin board).
Ask the person with whom you book your event to send out a press release to any and every newspaper that they can.
Write a press release, so it will be ready when you need it. This can be as simple as your (short) bio, your book title and a little about it, and again the date, time, and place of your talk.
Word of mouth is your friend: tell people and ask them to tell people: their friends, their families.
Make sure you bring business cards, book marks, and any other promotional materials you’ve got to every talk and/or signing you do.
Consider offering a ‘free gift with purchase’ to your book buyers. This doesn’t need to cost you much at all. In my book, there is an Italian grandmother who makes the best gravy in the entire world, so I gave out a recipe for it (from my own Italian Nana, whose recipe really IS the best in the entire world) as a bonus gift.
It doesn’t ever hurt to have chocolate spread out around your book. As people reach for the chocolate, you are also drawing their eyes (and hands!) toward your book!
If you are doing a library talk, they usually will have a sidewalk easel to put out to alert people about your event. Make sure they use it for you!
That’s all I have for you today. Please comment below if you have any additional tips that have worked for you!
What was good: Jodi’s reading of an excerpt of her book was dramatic and entertaining. It was definitely a performance worth hearing. Being able to ask her questions was also nice.
I liked the venue. The Portsmouth Music Hall is an older theater with loads of character and charm.
I also got the idea of selling tickets to my own author talks from this, and including the cost of the book in the ticket price. Smart, right? So you dont’ have to worry about investing a lot of time and money in an event and not selling books. I might try this someday, you know, when I’m famous.
What wasn’t so good: The price! Not only did you have to buy a ticket to hear the talk, you also had to buy a book. Hardcover fiction is not generally something I spend money on. This made for a pretty pricey evening. Also, the books were pre-signed. Not for nothing, but we had to take it on faith that she actually signed them herself. Just sayin’.
Also, while I did like that she took audience questions, I did not like that she only took some of our questions, and the ones she did take were pre-screened. There was really zero contact with her whatsoever, other than watching and listening. Not interactive.
It was more of an author show than an author talk, more formal than casual. I suppose in the future I should keep the difference in mind. I prefer the latter over the former.
All in all, the book sounds great. The protagonist is a nurse, and (as some of you know) so am I, so if I had to buy a hardcover fiction book by Jodi, I guess this was the one (NOTE: It better not end like My Sister’s Keeper).
I first noticed Mary’s book because of the cover, once again proving the rule: The cover sells the book. This is the first book in a series called The Bianca Goddard Mysteries. Book Two is Death of an Alchemist. The third book in the series is due out right after Christmas, called Death at St Vedast. Note to yourself: If you start reading now, you’ll be ready to read book three by then!
🙂
If you ever get the opportunity to hear Mary speak and read from her books, GO! You’ll have a pleasant break from those pesky chores that–let’s face it–are always going to be still waiting for you until you get home. Why not go have some fun first? Oh, and support a Maine Author!
Mary says her books are meant to be fast, fun reads. I can’t wait to read The Alchemist’s Daughter. I will be reviewing it here on my blog when I finish it.
Mary’s books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Books-a- Million.
I was given a DVD with my first TV interview with Jan Lewis on Be My Guest!a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t figure out how to get it from the DVD to my YouTube Channel or my blog, but I am blessed to have had a child who figured out how to do it for me.
Thank you, Anthony.
So here it is! I hope you enjoy watching it! Please feel free to share this and to comment with any thoughts below!
When I first published my book, I was cocky. I did it! I wrote it! I put it out there and let other people read it!
Guess what? Other people have opinions. Some of which I don’t like.
Especially about the F word. Does an F word by any other name smell as sweet? Apparently not. Some people didn’t like it that I used poetic license and my self-proclaimed abilities as a wordsmith to come up with a spelling that I liked best for one particular F word. One person, of note because (s)he was the only negative review I received for my book on Amazon, decided to review it without actually reading it because of this.
That was back in March.
Fast forward to now, September. Another person declined to read my book because I used another F word. After consulting with the great literary minds in my household, I made the executive decision to change the spelling of one of the F words under dispute to the one in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary(full disclosure: the online one) instead of the one in the Urban Dictionary.
So, now if someone doesn’t like it, they can bitch to them.
The other F word though, that’s trickier. I don’t think there is more than one way to spell f*&k.
I had the great good luck to find out about Anita Shreve‘s talk at RiverTree Center for the Arts last evening in time to actually go. What a good thing that my husband, unlike me, actually reads the newspaper we buy every Thursday.
I have had the opportunity to hear her talk once before, years ago, but this is the first time since I published my own book, so I was especially interested in hearing about her process.
I wasn’t disappointed. She talked about how inspiration for her novels comes together from different areas of her life and then explodes into an idea in her mind. It was fascinating to hear exactly how she turned this into The Weight of Water, perhaps her favorite of her own books. Many of you may know that this book also became a movie, and she told us about how exciting that was for her (even if they did change the ending!).
The experience of The Pilot’s Wife being an Oprah pick (and which also was made into a movie) was also discussed. Anita is very honest in giving her thoughts and feelings about her books and her writing and I’m certain this is just one thing that makes her such a wonderful writer.
But my favorite thing she talked about was how, at various times throughout her writing career, she has worried, “What would my kids think if they read this?” How validating for me to hear that I am in such good writer-ly company! My own book would have been published years ago if I hadn’t had that self-sabotaging thought.
No more worrying about what other people, family included, might think about my writing. I am taking Anita’s advice. I am writing for myself.
Thanks, Anita.
NOTE: Anita Shreve has written (I believe) at least 18 books. Her new book, The Stars are Fire, will be available in April, 2017. I can’t wait!
I went to The New England Authors Expo this week at The Danversport Yacht Club in (you guessed it) Danvers, MA. It was a hot summer day, and I was hopeful that the masses would like to get out of the hot sun and into the cool a/c, but not a whole lot did. The good news is that the readers who did make the effort to attend were amazing! We all appreciate it so much (thank you Robin, Sheila, Chrissy and Scott!) when our friends come out to support our writing!
I also am so blessed to have the support of my family. My husband, Bill, and my daughter, Izzy, spent the entire day with me, helping me get set up, keeping me fed and watered, and helping me connect with readers (yep; still shy). My son, Anthony, encourage me from afar via technology. Thank you so much!
Plus I made several new friends and met many terrific writers. I love how my book, One Brave Thing, has connected me to so many other people (and books!) that I might never have known otherwise.
I am loving every minute of this!
Maybe you should come to the next Expo.
Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Next New England Authors Expo:
Attend panel discussions! You will always learn at least new thing. I took pages of notes that I am looking forward to reviewing (Hello, free time? It’s Karen. I miss you…).
See what your fellow authors are doing to market their writing.
Show other authors what YOU are doing to market YOUR writing.
Get cool author swag (Check out the photo above)!
Learn some new social media strategies–and what to avoid doing.
You can offer to trade books (and reviews!) with other authors and then you have some excellent reads for the near future!
And the top 10 reason is:
10. You will have so much fun!!! 🙂
I came away from this event so inspired with ideas on how to market my book and to help my readers. I received an invitation to a free online webinar (note to self: register for free online webinar!), so the learning continues even once you get home. I met Gayle C. Heney, who talked to me about her program Write Now. I received an invitation to be on Be My Guest!, a program for writers hosted by Jan Lewis (stay tuned for details as the become available).
Inspiration? It’s a wonderful thing!
Here is a video from an Authors Expo from years past, to give you a flavor of what it’s like:
When my husband and I first became interested in each other, I wasn’t all in. I thought he was too good-looking, and that we’d have fun for a while, and then he’d get tired of me. Where did I get this idea? Oh, from many (many, many) of my past relationships.
Me: “I give it 3 months, and then you’ll be on to your next girlfriend.”
He: “No way! That’s not going to happen!”
Me (to myself): Yeah, right.
Anyway, now, there have been one hundred threemonths. He encouraged me to take the leap, and we got married 25 years ago. This is a picture that my brother took of me and Bill in 2014 when we renewed our vows to each other at St Ann’s Episcopal Church.
Take the leap
Does it look familiar? It might if you’ve seen my book! Pat took a lot of photos that day, one of which I used for the cover of One Brave Thing.
So, it just goes to prove that sometimes, if you trust what you’re feeling, everything will work out okay.
I wonder if all authors struggle with figuring out the title of their book. A self published author has total control over the end product, but this can be a double-edged sword. I went back and forth for months about what to name my book.
In its first draft (which many of you who have been following my blog for years well know 🙂 ) the title was Why Buy the Cow. Then a helpful friend asked, ‘Where’s the question mark?’ What? Oh. Right. It is a question. I hadn’t thought of that. Shoot. I dutifully updated the title to Why Buy the Cow? I was immediately unhappy with this, because it made me think this: Why Buy the Book? This wasn’t good for selling my book in general. I figured that if it made me have that thought, it might make others think that too!
That would be bad.
The next title was One True Love. I liked this title. I even did a little mock-up of a cover for it using free clip art. Then the questioning set in again. Was free clip art really free? Would someone object that it was their original design and I didn’t ask first if I could use it?
(Aside: Who would I ask? Mr Outlook?)
Self doubt: the killer of creativity.
So I went back to square one. What should I call my book?
And then I realized that the phrase ‘one brave thing‘ had been repeating in my head off and on for weeks, and I didn’t know why. And then, suddenly, I did.
My book was trying to tell me its name.
win. I am so proud! I don’t always know what I will be writing, but this year I did.
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
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