Thanks to an email from HARO (Help a Reporter Out), I’m going to be doing a Skype interview for the new website, WriterViews.com. How handy that the founder’s blog linked to this great article on improving the lighting for your webcam interview.
And as a bonus, here’s Lauren, the interviewer of WriterViews herself, talking about what she’s learned as an interviewer. It’ll help you, too.
HARO is a website that puts reporters in touch with the sources they need. Their slogan is, Everyone’s an Expert at Something, and here’s how it works.
You sign up. They send you several daily digest emails of stories for which media people need interviewees. It could be a pet-insurance newsletter, InfoWorld magazine, CBS’s morning news show, Marie Claire magazine, or some dude’s blog. They might want to talk to people who have helped their arthritis through diet, or have a funny zoo experience, or have experience with cloud computing.
As an author, the best-case scenario is that I can help someone with an article or show that is directly related to my book. The worst-case scenario is that my zoo story is credited to “a reader.” Between those two ends of the spectrum is the chance that I’ll be credited as “Esri Allbritten, author of the upcoming mystery, Chihuahua of the Baskervilles,” and that it’ll happen in a forum that reaches bajillions of potential readers.
I also pass leads to friends and family, ’cause this both endears you to people and reminds them that you exist. Make sure your email signature line is in good shape.
Review Date: May 15, 2011
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Pages: 288
Price ( Hardcover ): $23.99
Publication Date: July 5, 2011
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-312-56915-0
Category: Fiction
Classification: Mystery
Beleaguered Scotsman Angus MacGregor is sent to resuscitate Tripping magazine (about ghosts, not drugs) with a fanciful story of a ghost dog. Charlotte Baskerville, the owner and operator of the niche shop Petey’s Closet, “Where the Well-Dressed Pooch Shops,” has seen the clothing catalog’s namesake wandering her home’s grounds at night, a year after Petey’s death. Charlotte’s sourpuss husband Thomas insists that her story is further grounds for having the poor old dear declared incompetent, though a skeptic might suspect he’s more concerned for her money than her mind. With bold photographer Suki Oota and cynical writer Michael Abernathy in tow, Angus visits the Baskerville home determined to write the story, whether or not the ghost is real. The Tripping team quickly becomes integrated into the quirky Baskerville household, from fame-hungry Russian dog trainer Ivan Blotski to Charlotte’s own granddaughter and recovering alcoholic Cheri to bizarrely optimistic neighbor Bob Hume, who’s obsessed with acai berries. Charlotte’s living Chihuahuas, Lila and Chum, play non-speaking, emotionally supportive roles for the old girl while Angus and his mates investigate in order to assuage her concerns over Petey’s message from the beyond. The mystery takes a backseat to tensions among the characters, all culminating at the town’s annual coffin race festival.
Allbritten (Bound to Love Her, 2008, etc., as Esri Rose) tells a light and engaging tale with charming characters that will appeal to those outside of both mystery and canine genres.
Nikki, of the fantastic site, Obsessive Chihuahua Disorder, is in the process of reading an advance copy of Chihuahua of the Baskervilles.
(Bebe is my fave of Nikki’s Chis, btw. She’s the little mite who is second from the left in the photo below. To give you an idea of how wee she is, Monte (second from right) weighs three and a half pounds. Bebe is the dog equivalent of a sparkling fairy pony or a shoulder dragon with tiny flapping wings.
I have to mention some coincidences between Nikki and the book. Suki is Tripping Magazine‘s staff photographer. She’s half-Japanese. Nikki is also half-Japanese and a photographer. And their names both end in ‘i.’ There will be one more coincidence at the end of the second book, Portrait of Doreene Gray. You’ll just have to wait and see.
Oh, and if you’d like to join a super-fun Facebook group for Chihuahua lovers, join Nikki’s. I’m on there all the time, cooing over photos of Bebe.
Today I was involved in a Facebook discussion with Vincent Zandri, a thriller author who is exploring the frontiers of epublishing and POD. He started by talking about a book signing scheduled for this evening at a local Barnes & Noble.
But here’s a prediction: I will sell more copies of “Innocent” before lunch even, than I will sell of the trade paper edition of “Remains,” during the B&N signing. I’ll also call the store to make sure they’re set for tonight, and I guarantee the response will be, “What’s your name again?…What book???” 🙂
And sadly, he was right. Due to an error in how they had entered his ISBN number, his books arrived and were then shipped back. The book signing is postponed, and the experience didn’t exactly rekindle Vincent’s love of of paper books.
I’m done with traditional book signings.
From now on I will happily sign the reverse side of your NOOK and KINDLE, which seems to be the trend these days.
One thing this discussion made me wonder was if there is a market for some kind of cute scrapbooking system for author autographs, especially as the number of authors appearing only in ebooks grows. If it exists, let me know. If not, someone needs to get on this. Here’s what my ideal system would have.
Authors, you don’t have to wait for this. Why not have a page on your website that allows fans to print postcard designs with your cover art and photo, so they can print it out and send it in for you to sign and send back? Don’t forget to give them your P.O. address.
And now, here’s a poll.
I don’t know why I’m more of a social-media creature than most of my age peers, but it puts me in a position to see an interesting phenomenon. Traditional and cozy writers are often in the 40+ demographic, and the vast majority are not on Twitter.
One of the most useful things about Twitter is that it allows you to search everyone’s comments for a certain topic of interest…say, cozy mysteries. In June of last year, there were 190 million Twitter users, or tweeps. They generated 65 million tweets a day. Spreading the news of a book release to all their fellow tweeps took one click of the Retweet button.
If you’re promoting your new cozy/traditional mystery releases in bookstores or on blogs, then you may have a problem. People who spend time on Twitter find their book recommendations there. And if you’re thinking, “I target readers who are 40+, so they won’t be on Twitter anyway,” ask yourself this: Do you want to sell your books five, ten, or 15 years from now? Because people who grew up using Twitter and Twitterlike platforms are not going to magically stop using them when they reach a certain age.
How do people find information on Twitter? How do they help others find their stuff? One way is through the use of hashtags.
Let’s say I want to find out what brand-new thrillers are out there. I would get on Twitter and type #thrillers in the search field. Hashtags.org tells me that the high number of tweets about #thrillers so far today is 53, at 8:00 this morning (Bless those unpaid publicity interns). The high point so far today for #cozies is seven. Let’s compare the seven tweets on #cozies to the more general #books. Hashtags.org doesn’t measure that in individual numbers, because it’s too many. Instead, they say that at one point today, .14% of the total Twitter traffic was marked #books. In June of last year’s numbers, that would be over nine million tweets about books. Heck, #cats only made it to .05%. Cozy writers with series about #crafts? #crafts hit .01% at one point today, or 650,000 tweets. Definite sweet spot.
Here are some guidelines for using hashtags, followed by examples.
Twitter isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. You don’t need to follow people or get into conversations. But when you write a blog post about your cozy’s characters, or interview a fellow author, or announce a book release, get on Twitter and say something like,
Interview with Rhys Bowen, author of Molly Murphy #cozies. #mystery #books http://tinyurl.com/4z5cb3r
[The original URL (the http part) for that blog post made the tweet too long, so I went to TinyUrl.com, cut and pasted it into the field, and clicked the button to make it smaller.]
Here’s another example.
Death in Show now available on #Kindle ! #cozies #books #dogs http://tinyurl.com/4mojnkw
Help me colonize Twitter with the #cozies hashtag. Do it for the children.
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Additional articles:
Twitter for Writers, author Elizabeth Spann Craig
Things I Should Probably Say About Twitter, author Elizabeth Spann Craig
Sources:
Costolo: Twitter Now Has 190 Million Users Tweeting 65 Million Times A Day
http://twitter.pbworks.com/w/page/1779812/Hashtag
Upcoming Promo Tip post: Syndicating your blog on Facebook’s Networked Blogs.
Esri Allbritten 