Working Titlez

Book signings, blog posts, Facebook entries … all are great ways for a publisher to introduce a new book and its author (or authors) to the public. An easily dismissed medium, but equally as powerful, is the good old-fashioned radio talk show. In fact, listeners get an added bonus: they can actually hear excerpts in the authors’ own voices!

This Sunday night from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Coast to Coast AM radio (100.5 AM and 840 AM, Las Vegas), Emmy award-winning journalist and radio host George Knapp will be sharing the microphone with Vegas Rag Doll co-authors Wendy Mazaros and Joe Schoenmann. They’ll reminisce about days gone by, the Las Vegas mob, and Wendy’s former life as the wife of a hitman.

It promises to be a (late) night to remember: a prize-winning interviewer, an accomplished writer, and a woman with a story that’s difficult to imagine come together to burn up the airwaves with humor as well as drama. If you’re not a nightowl, or won’t be in Las Vegas for this holiday weekend, you don’t have to miss the entertainment; check out the radio’s website here for archived shows and station call numbers across the country.

Kevin Janison

Writers used to squirrel themselves away in remote cabins, dusty offices, revealing themselves only briefly to hand over completed manuscripts to their publishers or to appear shyly at the corner bookstore or coffee house for a book signing or reading. Rarely did authors speak to large audiences or get involved in marketing their great American novel.

But times have changed. Bookstores are closing — both big chains and little indie shops — providing fewer opportunities for book signings and appearances. Authors develop follows through their websites, tweets, and Facebook pages, but never meet face-to-face with their audience. Readers buy online or download straight to their Nooks and Kindles.

Stephen Nasser

What’s a writer to do? Stephens Press authors have found a way to reach out to the community and share their stories by visiting schools and speaking to students. Stu Michaels, author of You Can’t Make This Up! spent time with high schoolers in a creative writing class. Stephen Nasser, author of My Brother’s Voice, has presented stories of the Holocaust at middle school assemblies and Kevin Janison, has entertained elementary-age students with his Deputy Dorkface series. What a delightful partnership! Professional authors doing what they do best — telling stories — and inspiring a whole new generation of budding readers and budding writers.

Stu Michaels

Recently, Cedar Rapids, Iowa native Betty Auchard returned to her roots and spoke with Charity Nebbe of Iowa Public Radio. Click here to listen to Betty as she tells stories from her newest book, The Home for the Friendless.

Betty Auchard, author of The Home for the Friendless and Dancing in my Nightgown, returns to Iowa this month to speak at Prairie Lights Books, one of the premiere independent bookstores in the country. If you happen to be in Iowa City on June 14, come listen to Betty read and share stories from her newest book. If you aren’t in Iowa City, you still have time to get there – an evening you won’t want to miss!

You hear it over and over: One of the best ways for authors to sell books and build a fan base is through speaking engagements. Especially for non-fiction authors, “expertizing” one’s self through book publication and speaking is a great way to build a career.

My own speaking life improved greatly with the advice of our author Judi Moreo (You Are More Than Enough: Every Woman’s Guide to Power, Purpose, and Passion) who is the president this year of the National Speakers Association (NSA). I highly recommend this group for folks who want to be professional (and paid) speakers and there are chapters all over the country.

One of the things I learned from Judi and NSA is that you must have a list of speaking topics and descriptions. I’ve recently updated my Programs for Writers, and at the same time, I updated my handouts. Now each topic has a box of handouts organized in my office, ready-to-go. I can grab the box I need, and when it gets low, it is time to reprint. I also keep a file of speech notes and whenever I come across new statistics or factoids, I add it to the file. When I’m ready to update or customize a talk for a specific group, the notes are right there.

Betty Auchard’s newest book, The Home for the Friendless, was April’s book-of-the-month at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs in Las Vegas. She met with fans, held book signings, spoke to a women’s group in Henderson, and even went across town to meet readers in Red Rock. Betty made friends everywhere she went!

Tv weatherman and author Kevin Janison reads from his book, Deputy Dorkface: How Stinkville Got Cleaned Up at the recent Foster Grandparents BookFair hosted by Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas.

An interesting way to raise awareness of books. Would this work in your town? Would be really funny to see it in Las Vegas casinos. Stacey Fott, Publishing Coordinator, Stephens Press

 ”So, let’s create a few hundred Flash Mobs all over the country with people spontaneously reciting opening lines to their favorite books in a continual wave across the center of America’s shopping malls. We can even put them to music and include synchronized moves. Synchronization managed to make swimming seem more entertaining and people can do this without getting wet or nose plugs.”

-Columnist Martha Randolph Carr in the New Bern, N.C. Sun Journal.

Read Entire Article

by Krissy Hawkins
Author Maralys Wills recently chatted with Gregory Kompes, the man responsible for “The Fabulist Flash, A Newsletter for Writers”, to partake in some Q&A. Read some of the author’s revelations below – from discovering one’s writing style to self-marketing tips and of course, the most important lesson for writers – perseverance.

When did you ‘know’ you were a writer?
Long before I sold my first article, (about our sons’ adventures in hang gliding), I saw myself as a writer. As I collected 129 rejection slips for poems, essays, stories, and first-hand accounts, I wondered how many rejection slips it would take to sell something. In my mind it was always “when,” never “if.” Still, writing for money altered my title. Now I was an author. Before, I’d been a mother with a typewriter.

How would you describe your style of writing?
Straightforward. Vivid. Full of scenes and vignettes. Often humorous. A story-teller’s quest for the unusual, the humorous, the dramatic, the ironic. But securely anchored in the real world.

What is your writing process?
Except for publicity chores (which are all too time-consuming), I write whenever I can find the time. Sometimes I push things away to “make” time. When I’m deeply involved in a project, I let ordinary “living” go by the board. Laundry, shopping, cooking—they all wait. I have no schedule. Every stolen hour in front of the computer becomes my “schedule.”

What was your path to publication?
No special path. At first I simply sent things out (129 things), until United Airlines Mainliner magazine “bit.” From then on, every published book was achieved a different way. I was agented for my first nine books, yet for five of them the sale would not have occurred except for something I did myself. Even with an agent, you have to be part of the process.

What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
Speeches. There is no second choice. I have searched high and low for something that works as well as giving speeches, but have yet to find it.

8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?
Read the whole interview here.

When it comes to audio books, the narrator can make or break the experience. So how to choose the right one? The author is always an ideal candidate – for who else knows the story or characters so intimately. When it comes to a memoir this rings even more true. But very few authors have the skill to narrate their own work. Author Betty Auchard is one of those rare few.
On a current trip to Las Vegas, Betty wasn’t in town to gamble or play, she was here to work. Putting in the hours at the Dog and Pony Studios recording the forthcoming audio edition of her book Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood.
“It was very hard work,” recalls Auchard. “Recording required lots of concentration and breath-control, but I got the hang of it.” After three days, countless cups of hot tea and a dairy hiatus, the recording was complete.
Betty’s bright attitude, and the knowledgeable crew at Dog and Pony Studios, made all the hard work enjoyable. “They were such a wonderful crew – bright and funny, I truly enjoyed them.” said Auchard.
Betty summed up the week as “a terrific experience.” In fact, it went so well, she is contemplating a second career as a narrator!

Betty and crew