What Do You Take to Interviews? by Christine Duncan

I have an interview on Monday (when you may be reading this post) with a local newspaper. No, not for a job, although I need one. It’s to promote Safe House’s release. It’s been a while since I have done anything like this. And I’m nervous.
Okay, I’m really nervous. But I have a trick that I use for these sort of situations. I tell myself that I only have to be uncomfortable for a certain period of time–in this case an hour. Somehow it seems more doable. After all, you can do just about anything–short of real physical torture (dentist not excepted) for an hour. So I talk myself into these things.
But that doesn’t mean I know what exactly to take to these things. I know what I’ll talk about. I always talk about the reasons I write the books. That makes me more comfortable. But what do you take?
The paper will do a picture. I sent my press kit. I know enough to bring my books. But what else?
So I’m asking you. so Next time I’m more prepared. What do you take to interviews? And how do you get yourself through them?

Elevator Pitch by Christine Duncan

The elevator pitch is useful to a writer at just about any stage. If you really want to sell your book–work on your elevator pitch. If the book is published but you’re trying to interest readers,(sell your book) work on your elevator speech.

The difference is, I think it’s easier when you’re not published yet. The elevator speech for an unpubbed writer should be short–really short. And it should be fun and pique interest. Think of it as a tweet for Twitter. Okay that sounds hard if you got a complicated plot and hero/heroine. But it’s important. You’ll use the elevator speech at conferences where you are trying to interest editors and agents and you use it in your cover letter. So it’s a little intimidating. You don’t want to stammer here.

Trust me though. Perfecting an elevator pitch tends to boil down what you think is important about your novel. That can really help you when you’re sitting down to write too–almost like goal statements, it tends to concentrate things. I know one writer who keeps her elevator pitch right in front, taped to her monitor so she doesn’t veer off track.

If you’re wondering why it should be so important consider this scenario: You come in and sit down in front of an editor stammering, “Well, uh, my work in progress is about this guy who ah, he doesn’t like himself much and ah….” (Yeah, the editor is bored already,and if you weren’t sweating it so badly, you would be too.) Or you can say, “I’ve got a techno-vampire mystery where the hero is troubled by his vampirism, has a mortal love interest who isn’t aware of his problem and is also trying to track down some guy killing all the vampires.”

Not that that is a wonderful elevator speech, but it tells genre and sub-cross genres, gives a bit of the plot, tells the editor you know where you’re going. And you can actually spit it out if you do accidentally meet an editor in an elevator. .

By the time you’re published, people want longer elevator pitches. The typical one I’m asked for now is for radio, so it is usually around two minutes. You know, you can say a heck of a lot in two minutes. Or not enough. It takes practice.

Give it a try. Try it out on us! Give us your elevator speech.

Can Promo Really Help? by Christine Duncan

I saw a post on Facebook the other week from a publicist responding to an author. I never really saw the author’s original post but I gather from the answer that he/she was lamenting because his* book was coming out this fall in the middle of a recession.
No one would buy it.
The publicist’s response was somewhere along the line of with the right advertising, books will still do well.
Maybe. In the best of all possible worlds.
Frankly, I’m thinking twice before I buy a .35 chocolate covered cherry when I stop by the 7-11 to pick up the newspaper on Sundays. (I have to buy the Sunday paper–the TV guide is in it and my husband and son are addicted to that thing. The candy–eh, I don’t need the calories anyway.) Advertising is NOT affecting my buying habits right now. If I can’t find a book at the library or in the rare really-gotta-have-it mode, at the used bookstore, I’m not buying right now. It doesn’t matter if you are throwing in freebies; it doesn’t matter if it is something I’ve been lusting after for years. I did go to see Harry Potter at the theater though it had NADA to do with advertising–at least, this year.
So here’s my question, what are you doing to get your book sold and do you really think it’s helping? Sending your book off to Oprah? Selling the book out of your cubby at work or maybe on some downtown street corner? How is it different than what you did before for promo?
Do you think publicists help?

*Okay, enough of this PC pronoun stuff I’m going with the Trad male pronoun. You feminists in the crowd can keep in mind that I am a woman myself. A lazy woman, but definitely female.

Social Networking–again by Christine Duncan

Again, all of my on-line book discussion groups seem to be filled with talk of where to network. This time, we are all exchanging our Twitter names and the groups are filled with people who can tell you what ap to use to update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and the like all at once so you don’t have to take the time to go to all.
It is so very…efficient. And I admit to using aps like Ping.fm and Twaitter when I’m busy so that they will do the work for me. But I miss the interaction this way. I don’t really connect with people if all I’m doing is doing a quick update of my status. I have begun calling the whole deal MYFACE, because it is all so narcississtic. Yet I do it. And there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll get on Twitter again, probably today and tweet: Read My Blog, I got a Great Review on Myshelf, or just–Read My Book.
I really liked June Shaw’s comments about promoting on this blog. I believe we need to promote. I just miss the people part of it. Sigh. Is there a solution?

Blogbook Tour Update

I’m beginning to think a blogbook tour is actually a mental health challenge. If you make it through without being certified, you are good for life. If not….well there are some nice facilities for mental rehab nowadays.
Today’s post was supposed to be a calm update about my blog tour which kicked off Sunday. I was going to tell you how I got it all together, had all the posts written, the links up, and was now just waiting for comments.
You guys all know me better than that now, don’t you?
First off, the book is not out yet. We were waiting to get the blurb from a review, but then the reviewer needed it edited. Then the reviewer’s editor wanted a live link on Amazon or Borders or some other online bookstore, which ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN UNTIL THE BOOK IS PUBLISHED which we don’t want to do until we have the review. (it is on Fictionwise and Amazon as an e-book with my other pub, but that apparently wasn’t enough.) You see the circle?
Okay, so no print book yet since I can’t see my way out of the circle and neither can my publisher apparently. But I do have the tour lined up all the way into the beginning of June. And I have the posts written (okay, most of them. You folks who are waiting for the first week of June posts–I’m working on them. As soon as I get this post written and the one written for MakeMineMystery for the last Thursday in May and the intro post for our guests here, oh and I have to tweet and put updates up on Facebook and myspace and crimespace bout Linda Faulkner visiting here tomorrow. Okay, it’s not probably going to happen today–but I’m working on it.
I do have the first part of the tour schedule up on my website. and I’m going to list it on Goodreads and FB events and anywhere else.
Should we have a pre-order link do you think? Maybe something tasteful up on the pub’s website? Or just keep going on the blogtour until the book is actually out?
I can practically hear Narelle. Breathe in, Christine.

Crunch Time

Since Safe House is coming out next month I am fast approaching freak out mode. There is still so much to do, and no time to do it. My cover is not yet done but people are asking for it to post with their reviews or to post with my guest blog for my blog tour. So I am just putting them off.

My links are not yet final as since the book is not done yet, it is not up at even my publisher’s site yet let alone Amazon or Borders.com. But again reviewers and others are asking for the link to post.
I need to line more blogs up for my blog tour, get some posts written. Joyce and Jim Lavene, I have not forgotten your interview for your blog. I am working on it, really. Linda Hutchinson, I have also not forgotten your kind offer. I will be in touch this week.

I also need to email some of these reviewers myself and ask if I can use a quote to promote the book–maybe on the back of the book? I need blurbs, people. Anyone want to blurb Safe House?
I also need more reviews and need to send our more ARCS, as soon as I get them made!

I have, I kid you not, 516 emails in my in-box–and that is just one of my four email accounts, piling up waiting for me to get time to answer them. But that was because I was stupid enough to take on an extra job doing taxes just as my book was coming out. Silly me! What do I need money for? I’ll only spend it on more promo! Who needs to pay their own taxes and incidentally, eat?

I am overwhelmed. I am out of my league. How does anyone ever do all this? Someone, please, give me a hint now.

What do you use blogs for?

Recently I read that American newspapers are hitting the dust because many of us are getting our news online now–specifically, this source said, from blogs.
Now I am an avid reader of blogs, especially since I’ve been trying to do this one and put my own blog tour together. I use a blog aggregator called Netvibes that comes up as my home page with all of my favorite blogs already loaded on it. I can see at a glance if they have updated and if I want to comment on them. But I never see news there. I get occasional news updates from Twitter–but it’s the stuff like, did you hear So and So died.
I still tend to get my news from CNN or MSNBC. That’s not why I read a blog. And my favorite blogs might comment on news–but they don’t really revolve around news. I read writers’ blogs, because I don’t get enough professional interaction with other writers. Or sometimes I read hoping to pick up the occasional promo tip, or writing insight. I read to be amused and to get relaxed.
So now I’m wondering as I try to get this blog tour thing going, maybe I should be aiming to do something. Maybe I should figure out why folks read blogs so I can try to meet the need. So I’m asking you–Why do you read blogs?