Friday Fun Facts: Try an Audio Book

Traveling this summer? Taking any books with you? Print version, or e-reader? Or...what about an audio book or two? Don't forget that downloading an audio book is a terrific way to take a story with you on the plane or in a car and requires even less space to store than an ebook!

And why am I mentioning audio books? Because two of my earliest stories, Lost in Paradise, and One Night in Memphis, are both available now from Audio Lark. I always forget to mention them when I'm doing promotion, so here's my big shout-out! And yum - I love these covers as well - don't you?

Or, if you've already read (or heard) my books, why not give another one a try? Enjoy your travels and free your hands - buy an audio book!

Writers' Wednesday: Two Helpful Links

I'm about halfway through my latest WIP, Beacon of Love, and though I went through over the weekend and made some major plot changes (and a character name that just wasn't working for me), I'm surging ahead now and trying, trying to get to my goal of 60K words by the end of the month.

But...

I wanted to take a moment to briefly share two links with writers today.

The first is Goddess Fish Promotions, partner site to The Long and the Short of It and run by two of very talented writing/reviewing/promoting friends. (That's not why I'm chatting it up though). They have some great options when it comes to promoting your new release. If you'd like to guest blog or do some online appearances but aren't sure how or where to start, they will set up the whole thing for you. Great price ranges, too. Check them out here.

And the second is Savvy Authors. I'll be doing some workshops for them later this summer, but as I was perusing their site I discovered that they have the AWESOME opportunity for writers to pitch to agents and editors, on a fairly regular basis. This week alone, agents/editors from Larsen Pomada, Sourcebooks, Judith Ehrlich, and Ethan Ellenberg have been/will be there. So check it out!

Now I'm back to the keyboard...

Monday Mentionables: A Successful Saturday!

Thoughts on my Saturday signing experience (4th time I've been at this craft fair in my hometown):

1. The "Local Author" angle is a HUGE draw. For the first time I had both a sign and a framed copy of an article that had appeared in the local paper a couple of years ago. The number of people who stopped by simply because of that probably made up at least half of my total sales - and these weren't people I knew, but people who just lived locally who thought it was cool that I had grown up there.

2. But don't discount the word-of-mouth-it's-who-you-know angle. A woman who turned out to be a mother of a classmate of my sister's (are you following this?) was so tickled when she found out who I was that she bought all my books!

3. Online/social media contacts do matter! One person told me they got my electronic newsletter so they knew I'd be there; another saw my post on Facebook about it. There are never too many ways to spread the word!

4. Being friendly (but not overly so) makes a difference. I chatted with one fellow vendor who was making the rounds. She asked which book was my favorite and I recommended Summer's Song, which she bought. About 4 hours later she came back because she was up to chapter 4 and wanted another one of my books! That was probably the highlight sale of my day.

5. Make yourself & your books appealing. One teenage girl asked me if I'd save her a copy of Summer's Song because she had to run home to get more money. I told her I would try, but that one was going fast (truth, I wasn't trying to play hardball). She took her last $12 out of her purse to buy it!

So yes, it was a successful author appearance (I sold 27 books total) - and I would really recommend taking advantage of any place where you can be the "local author" - people love to know/live next door to/shop with someone who's written a book or two!