A Big Thank You

So sorry I didn't post yesterday. I'm about as busy as I can get. Had class Mon/Tues am IN class the rest of the week for a certification I need AND I have to take a test at the end. Eeek! I'm not even going to tell you when the last time I took a test was because then you might figure out how old I am. Let's just say it's been more than ten years.

In addition to that I have a book that needs to go to my agent in 20 days (that is not finished), a sick dog, two expense reports to do, two trips to book, two doctor calls to make, one insurance policy to renew, one warranty policy to renew and all my bills to pay. Oh, and I need clean laundry for a booksigning I have this Saturday - where there might be television coverage - double eeek! But enough of my whining and onto my story:

I had an interesting thing happen on Saturday and wanted to share it with you. My husband and I were eating breakfast in a local restaurant when a guy seated behind us had a heart attack and fell out into the floor. Now this man could never, ever be a character in my current book because he is the luckiest person I've met in a long time - you see, a doctor was sitting in the booth next to him.

The doctor dropped to the floor, checked his vitals and immediately began performing CPR, while asking questions of the wife who indicated the heart trouble. The best part - he saved the man's life! Within five minutes the EMT's were there and the man was breathing and talking when they arrived.

So here's a big THANK YOU to all medical personel - doctors, nurses, EMT's, firemen, paramedics. You do a fabulous job and we're all lucky to have people in society who dedicate their lives to helping others.

Movie Review Monday

It's time again for Movie Review Monday.

Movie Seen: The Messengers

This was a horror movie - you might have guessed that by the scary looking crows on the SUV. And I guess it could have been scary, but it just really wasn't. What this movie needed was another thirty minutes of plot and character development - not to mention a bit more backstory. It was utterly predictable, which for me is nothing new, but it was so limiting in character scope that it was too obvious who the bad guy was.

Also, they could have had the town be creepy and play into the movie. There was a storyline with a banker that didn't resolve itself at all although the music and other indicators were there that he was part of the plot.

All of this I could have passed over if the movie had made it on creep factor. Let's face it, The Grudge was a crappy movie but the creep factor was high. Same for The Ring. But The Messengers only had a scene or two of good creep and not a single one that made me jump or even twitch.

Overall, I'll give this one a C- for effort.

My final words: If you like cheesy horror - it's a rental

Must Love Books

Looking back, I should have known I needed to be a writer in elementary school. Even then I was writing stories - wrote the class play in fourth grade and used to entertain the class at story hour with my own stuff. I kept writing some through junior high, high school and college and even gave it a bit of a shot after college and once I'd entered the workforce full time, but I don't think I had anything to say that was publishable until now. But the desire was always there, in the back of my mind, in the depths of my soul, just waiting for the time to burst out.

To my relatives who grew up around me - my writing books probably comes as no surprise. After all, I had my nose in one every time they looked at me. It started with Dr. Seuss. My mom got one of those subscriptions that came in the mail one book a month and she read to me. Soon she realized, I'd memorized the books quickly and was "reading" to myself. It only got worse from there.

Once I discovered the wonderful land of books, you couldn't get me out of them. I read books in the car, I read books in bed, books in the living room, books outside on the porch. Tried to read a book in church - got in trouble for that one. And read books during dinner - my mom fought this one valiantly but finally gave up. In fact, I was so far ahead of my high school English class that my teacher let me read because she wasn't covering anything I didn't already know.

Vacation was a grand time! We took beach vacation - always to Destin, Florida, which is absolutely gorgeous and guess what I took with me - books. I came out toting a carrying bag one time with a load of books in it and my dad looked inside and said "why in the world are you bringing all these books. You're not going to read them all." I just said "wanna bet." And mind you, I wasn't carrying a load of short sweet romances back then. My bag was loaded down with Tom Clancy, Agatha Christie, Tolkein (I was revisiting The Lord of the Rings), Michael Chricton and some others. I remember that one trip I had sixteen books in total and before the end of the six days, I needed to go to the bookstore for more.

So you can imagine my disbelief when every once and a while I get into a conversation with someone about writing and they say "I have an idea for a book I'd really like to write someday" then follow this statement up later on with "But I really don't like to read at all."

Huh???????

Why in God's name would you want to attempt an extraordinarily difficult career if you don't like to read????? Now, don't get me wrong, I am not exactly passionate about numbers but I'm a damned good accountant. But that's different. I can make a good living as an accountant without loving what I do. But you have to be passionate to write a book or it will never sell. And you have to be passionate about continuing to write books for a long, long time because it could take years before you show a profit from writing above the money you're spending pursuing it.

Maybe people are confused and think all writers make a lot of money, sit by beaches to write and are so famous they don't have to do things like pump their own gas. Maybe people think because they have a computer and can type, they can write. Maybe they've read a book sometime in their life and because it looked easy they made the mistake of thinking it was. Maybe they think as long as they have an interesting story that technique doesn't matter, so why spend all those years perfecting it.

Maybe they're wrong. No, definitely they're wrong.

Despite a fulltime day job, a fulltime writing job (complete with an April 1st deadline) and a husband, home, three dogs and three cats, and other family nearby, I still manage to read 3-4 books a week. Now, I'll admit, I read a lot of category while I'm writing a rough draft. I don't read in genre because I don't want it to affect my voice, but the reality is, reading books is one of the most important ways to stay motivated to write books.

Let's face it, there's far more reasons to stop writing than to continue. Good Lord the list for stopping wouldn't fit on a roll a paper that stretches a city block. The reasons for continuing are far more simple, far more personal, and a lot less in volume. But they're more important. And I'd hazard a guess that for every writer out there, one of their reasons for writing is because they love to read.

Marketing With Bookmarks

I've had several people ask if I would talk a bit about marketing since my debut release push is sorta over, and they'd like to know what worked and what didn't. Well, let me say first of all that's it's a really hard thing to quantify. If it wasn't there would be lists and books of "do exactly this" all over the internet and bookstores just like there are for technique. Marketing is not a simple thing to measure because we can't interview the entire reading public and find out why exactly they purchased the book.

I'll talk about some different important pieces to marketing as I blog more about this topic, some of them things the writer can control and some that they can't. Today, I'm going to talk about bookmarks.

Bookmarks are a controversial subject among the writing community - should I get them, do they do any good, etc. And everyone has a differing opinion. This is mine:

I got bookmarks and I'm happy I did. BUT, bookmarks have to be utilized correctly to be effective. Let's face it, we've all attended a conference and gotten a goodie bag stuffed with flyers and bookmarks. Now, while I don't throw these away, I have to say I don't read them either. I put them all in a cup in my office for future use. I really, honestly can't ever remember reading a bookmark that was lumped in mass quantity like that. That doesn't mean no one looks at them, so of course, I don't hesitate to send my own bookmarks out to conferences, but I'm not betting on a surge in sales using this technique.

Bookmarks are effective when utilized as an information tool following up a personal recommendation. You've all read the blogs about my dad - who will accost women in Walmart, bookstores, etc. and tell them about my book. Then he always gives them a bookmark. They might not buy right then but later on if they're thinking "what was that book that man in Walmart told me to buy" well, guess what - they don't have to remember because they have a bookmark spelling it out for them. THAT'S where bookmarks are a handy dandy piece of marketing material. My husband, brother, several writer friends and some of my regular blogging buddies have also accosted people in stores and told them about the book. My mom, who is not an accoster by nature, still hands out bookmarks to anyone who might be interested - people at the doctor's office, the checkout clerk at Walgreen's, etc.

So many times we're not standing in a bookstore when we're pitching our books or friend's book to people. A bookmark is a reference to hand to someone in case it stays in the back of their mind and they need to remember later on. I talk about my writing everywhere I travel. If it comes up in conversation, I tell my classes. If any of them show interest, I give them bookmarks. Since I have gotten email from students saying how much they loved the book, I have to say that worked. If I get a chance, I will start a conversation in airports or on planes and turn it over to my writing. If there is interest - I hand them a bookmark. Since I have gotten email from people that I talked to in airports, I have to say that worked, too.

So my point is this - bookmarks do not have some magic quality that sells books. It's about the personal contact first, then using the bookmark so the person can remember which book to buy. I think bookmarks have been a hellaciously successful marketing tool for me, but then, I have a hellaciously tenacious set of friends and family - and I'm no slacker myself. :)

I also think bookmark design and quality make a difference. Different colors catch the eye and the feel of paper make people instantly think "high quality" or "cheap." If you have a network of people who will push your bookmarks, go ahead and splurge on the price and the design. If you are not a graphic artist, please, PLEASE turn this part of the process over to an expert. I learned the hard way about graphics when I tried my own web designing. It's not my strong point and any time I waste on attempting it is time I could have spent writing my next book.

I used earthlycharms.com for my bookmark printing and design and couldn't be happier. Were they the cheapest - no - but based on the other bookmarks I've seen out there, they are definitely the best. In fact, I've had other writers ask me where I bought my bookmarks because they were so impressed with the quality.

So that wraps up my first marketing lesson. I hope this helps!