Coming Mother's Day, Sunday, May 12th! |
Win a copy of this book! We will give away ten copies of the new Peggy Lee Garden Mystery on the day of its release, Mother's Day, Sunday May 12th! Send your email address to joyce@joyceandjimlavene.com with A Thyme to Die in the subject line. www.joyceandjimlavene.com
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Thursday, April 18, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Crazy Promotions (continued)
Crazy Promotion
By Joyce Lavene
www.joyceandjimlavene.com
As I promised in Tuesday's post, I have some real life tales of crazy promotion.
One writer, who asked to keep her name a secret, said she spent a whole Saturday putting flyers on cars in a mall parking lot. At the end of the day, security fined her $50 and had picked up all of her flyers. "I'll never do that again, but I'm always looking for another way to promote."
Because that's the way it is now, right? I've read on some writer's loops that most people feel that it's more important to learn how to promote than to worry about their writing skills.
That may seem sad, but we seem to spend more and more time promoting and less being able to write.
And the couple who sold everything to go on an extended bus tour? Bill and Susan Waxman. They left their home in California to tour the country and sell books. They sold some books, found out living that way wasn't for them, and are now living in Illinois where Susan grew up. They don't write anymore, but they still have the bus with their only book cover on it.
I received a lot of comments about being willing to do anything to promote.
Linda Leaver-Dyson said that she writes non-fiction. "I did news interviews and spoke at our foster parent groups. I don't care what I have to do to promote. I would do it!"
Many authors go with themes to promote. My good friend, Lynette Hall-Hampton wrote a book with a Harley in it and did some promotion at the local Harley store. "People at the store and people who came in really liked it. I sold some books."
Jim and I attended many flower shows and garden events for our Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries. We've spoken to countless groups who wanted to know about poison plants. Recently, we did a library event, talking about the poison plants used in The Hunger Games. That was a little odd because we were talking about someone else's book.
Probably the best promotion effort we received was from author Judy Nichols who had her little girl to promote her books at the 2005 Cape fear Crime Festival in Wilmington, NC.
This may seem over-the-top, but not for Judy!
"Here's an idea that I considered but mercifully didn't execute--in the first chapter of my book, Caviar Dreams, the main character, a photographer, is fired by an ad agency because her photos of the product--tampons--were not "ethereal' enough. My big plan was to send out promo books to stores with a cardboard encased tampon enclosed. I did send out champagne corks. Never heard from anyone. I suppose they wanted the champagne that went with the corks."
I'm sure we'll see many more stunts to promote books as more and more books are published and authors try to sell them. More ebooks will probably mean more promotion on the Internet and less at stores and book clubs.
By Joyce Lavene
www.joyceandjimlavene.com
As I promised in Tuesday's post, I have some real life tales of crazy promotion.
One writer, who asked to keep her name a secret, said she spent a whole Saturday putting flyers on cars in a mall parking lot. At the end of the day, security fined her $50 and had picked up all of her flyers. "I'll never do that again, but I'm always looking for another way to promote."
Because that's the way it is now, right? I've read on some writer's loops that most people feel that it's more important to learn how to promote than to worry about their writing skills.
That may seem sad, but we seem to spend more and more time promoting and less being able to write.
And the couple who sold everything to go on an extended bus tour? Bill and Susan Waxman. They left their home in California to tour the country and sell books. They sold some books, found out living that way wasn't for them, and are now living in Illinois where Susan grew up. They don't write anymore, but they still have the bus with their only book cover on it.
I received a lot of comments about being willing to do anything to promote.
Linda Leaver-Dyson said that she writes non-fiction. "I did news interviews and spoke at our foster parent groups. I don't care what I have to do to promote. I would do it!"
Many authors go with themes to promote. My good friend, Lynette Hall-Hampton wrote a book with a Harley in it and did some promotion at the local Harley store. "People at the store and people who came in really liked it. I sold some books."
Jim and I attended many flower shows and garden events for our Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries. We've spoken to countless groups who wanted to know about poison plants. Recently, we did a library event, talking about the poison plants used in The Hunger Games. That was a little odd because we were talking about someone else's book.
Probably the best promotion effort we received was from author Judy Nichols who had her little girl to promote her books at the 2005 Cape fear Crime Festival in Wilmington, NC.
This may seem over-the-top, but not for Judy!
"Here's an idea that I considered but mercifully didn't execute--in the first chapter of my book, Caviar Dreams, the main character, a photographer, is fired by an ad agency because her photos of the product--tampons--were not "ethereal' enough. My big plan was to send out promo books to stores with a cardboard encased tampon enclosed. I did send out champagne corks. Never heard from anyone. I suppose they wanted the champagne that went with the corks."
I'm sure we'll see many more stunts to promote books as more and more books are published and authors try to sell them. More ebooks will probably mean more promotion on the Internet and less at stores and book clubs.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
To Romance Or Not by Victoria Hamilton
I'd like to welcome Victoria Hamilton today! She writes the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. Her next is Bowled Over, out March 5th!
To Romance or NOT
to Romance?
By: Victoria
Hamilton
First off, I want to thank Jim
and Joyce for having me here! I really appreciate their hospitality.
I am the happy and proud author
of three cozy series, though the only one with any books on shelves at the
moment is my Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. Bowled Over, Book 2, comes out on
March 5th.
Jaymie Leighton, a thirty-something happy small town girl
is the heart of the mysteries. She has, in the past year, been unceremoniously
dumped by her ex in favor of a young, slimmer, blonder woman. She’s coming to
terms with it and finds that when she least suspects it she has one and a half
men interested in her. I say one and a half, because one fellow, millionaire
Daniel Collins, is more than willing to declare himself, while the hunky
detective, Zacchary Christian, prefers to chuck her under the chin and tell her
what a cute girl she is.
As some bloggers before me have
pointed out, this is the dilemma that every cozy mystery writer ends up with:
to romance or not to romance? On the one hand, romance is a part of life,
right? And if we want our novels to reflect reality then there will be, on
occasion, romance and a love interest in the life of our protagonist and even
some of the secondary characters.
On the other hand, I read Agatha
Christie books for most of my youth, then moved on to Sara Paretsky and Sue
Grafton; quite frankly, the love lives of most of their characters (barring the
charming romance between Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence Beresford) is awkward
and faltering, to say the least.
I think many mystery readers would prefer we
exclude romance, while an equal number of others are rooting for the
protagonist and his or her fellows to have happiness, which often includes a
significant other.
So here’s what I think; murder
mysteries are, contrarily, about life not death, and life is a big, messy ball
of confusion. It’s all co-mingled: life and death, love and hate, jealousy and
serenity, greed and compassion, marriage and murder.
However romance, while
being a part of the books I write, will never take center stage, or they would
not be mysteries any more.
I used a tagline when I was still
straddling the worlds of being a romance author (which is where I got my
publishing start, though I had been writing unpublishable mysteries for years
before that) and mystery author. I said of myself that I ‘liked a little romance in my mystery, and a little mystery in my
romance.’ I still think that’s a good motto.
I would truly be interested in
the opinion of mystery readers. Do you, or do you not, like a spot of romance
in your mysteries?
~::~
Meet the author:
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym
for author Donna Lea Simpson. As Victoria she
writes the bestselling Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (Book 1 – A Deadly Grind
– May 2012) and the upcoming Merry Muffin Mysteries, also from Berkley
(Book 1 – Bran New Murder – September 3rd, 2013) Victoria
loves cooking and collecting vintage kitchen utensils, as well as reading and
writing mysteries. Check out her webpage for all the latest: http://www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
and find her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Promoting Your Book: How Far Are You Willing to go?
Promoting Your Book: How far are YOU willing to go?
I met a couple in Washington, DC that sold their house in the suburbs of California, took all of their money, and bought an old bus that they remodeled. Their plan was to live in the bus as they criss-crossed the country selling their book at stores and festivals and telling people about it. They even got their book cover air-brushed on the side of the bus.
Crazy plan, huh?
I also met a woman who bought a full-page ad in Romantic Times to sell her first book, very expensive. Another woman sent chocolate and roses to each reviewer she could think of who might review her book. Also very expensive.
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| Authors do crazy things to promote their books! |
Authors do crazy things all the time to promote their books. That's because once you get published - either as an ebook or a print book - you suddenly realize that people have to BUY the thing if you want to keep writing. Even if you don't want the validation that comes with money, you want to be on some bestseller or favorite list somewhere. It goes with the territory.
There are plenty of books and online courses on how to promote and lots of people willing to take your money to promote for you. However, that mystical formula for success has never been clearly defined. That leaves every author scrambling around, trying to figure out what he or she should do to get readers to read their book.
I'd like to hear a few things you've done that were crazy, or that worked for you, or both. I'll be back on Thursday (2-28) with some things I've done, crazy and otherwise to promote. I hope to bring you some other writer's ideas too.
Oh yeah, and I'll tell you what happened to the authors with the bus!
Joyce
www.joyceandjimlavene.com
Book #1 - That Old Flame of Mine
By J.J. Cook
April 2013
http://berkleysignetmysteries.com/book2722
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Camellias in the snow - pictures by Joyce Lavene
I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina, between the coast and the mountains. We rarely get snow (think every other year or so). When we do, it is a reason to take a step back, enjoy the scenery. It won't be here for long. We have clashes here between snow and flowering plants and shrubs. Here is one of them as my pink camellias try to smile despite the frosty weather. The good news is that camellias are hardy. They might get a little brown but they will come back.
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| I had to add this cute old church birdhouse that was my mother's. |
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Why aren't We Living Our Dreams?
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| The good news? With every dream comes the time and the ability to fulfill it.
The bad news? Most people use that time and ability doing something else.
Kure Beach, Wilmington, NC 2-2013 |
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