Selling Yourself

SELL YOURSELF

by

Sidney W. Frost

© 11/9/2017

The activities involved in selling yourself can begin before your book is released. Get your name out there as soon as possible so that when your book is published you will appear to be well-established. If you already have books on the market, read on because it is never too late to build interest in you and your products.

I began a blog called The Christian Bookmobile five months before my first book was published. During that time, I posted articles about why I wrote the book as well as some of the mechanics of self-publishing. At one point, I let readers vote for the cover they liked best. By the time the book was available for purchase, I had written and posted 85 articles. However, there's no magic number. Do as many as you can, though. It takes time to build a following.

Blogging is just one way to sell yourself. We'll also talk about building a website, using social media, joining groups, and other ways to get your name out for potential buyers to see.

WEBSITES

Not everyone will want both a website and a blog so read the section on blogs before deciding. The ultimate purpose for an author website is to reach book buyers, entice them to buy your books, and recommend your publications to all their friends.

Here are some of the pages you'll find on the typical author website.

Home—this is where the reader begins if he or she types in your domain name. My domain name is sidneywfrost.com. The city of Georgetown's domain name is Georgetown.org. The Internal Revenue Service uses irs.gov. However, don't forget someone may reach one of your other pages first if they access your site as the result of a search. In addition to entering your site, you may sometimes direct them to a special place called a landing page during a marketing promotion. So, make your website easy to navigate. Each page in your website should include a simple way to get to the other pages.

Bio—This page, sometimes called Profile, Author, About, or whatever you like, often contains a recent photo and a biography slanted for your writing career. If you have worked in other areas besides what you write about, only include information that is pertinent. Since I write Christian stories that involve a bookmobile in one way or another I mention my experience as a Stephen Minister and the fact that I was a bookmobile driver at one time. The main character in my Vengeance Squad stories is a computer science professor, so I include the fact that I taught computer science for many years.

Books—Although you can highlight your books on the home page, there should be another page with more information about each book. This page could include purchasing information as well as buy links. You may want to sign up with Amazon as an associate and earn commissions when people buy from your website.

Events—This page is sometimes called Appearances or Calendar. It should include the date and time you will be at a book signing or doing a talk. Leave in those that have already occurred to show your activity. I include events such as being a guest on a blog.

Contacts—This page could contain a fill-in-blank form to make it easy for the reader to send you a message without knowing your e-mail address. Or, you could list the various ways a reader could contact you. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, e-mail, etc.

Blog—This is a place where you post short articles periodically along with any other information you want to convey. You may choose to have a separate blog site. See a complete description of blogs below.

My website includes a blog, but I use this instead: http://christianbookmobile.blogspot.com/  

Media—Some authors include information for the news media. Various-sized photos of author and book covers, expanded bios and press releases, for example. I'm not sure these are necessary for most authors.

Although not found on all author websites, I also include a Specials section because I think everyone is interested in a deal. This is where I show books that are free and discounted, or are scheduled to be soon.

Here are few examples of author websites selected from The New York Times bestseller lists at the time this book was written:

John Grisham: http://www.jgrisham.com/

Sue Monk Kidd: http://suemonkkidd.com/

Jeaniene Frost: http://jeanienefrost.com/

Anna Quindlen: http://annaquindlen.net/

Check these websites, or those of your favorite authors, to get ideas for your own. Find other sites to study, especially the websites of authors of books like yours.

It can be costly to hire someone to create a website for you. In keeping with our goal of not spending more for advertising than we can make from sales, you will probably need to look for a cheaper way to build a web presence. In the section titled "Blogs", you will see that a free blog can do most everything a website can do. This means you may only need a blog.

I like to have both. Therefore, I look for ways to do so without spending tons of money. I recommend Weebly.com. Even though I have a master's degree in computer science and am experienced in building websites, I didn't want to take the time required to build one from scratch that could be easily and quickly updated. Instead, I looked around for solutions and ended up with Weebly. They offer various levels of service beginning with one that is free. I signed up for the pro plan since it included some features I wanted, and by paying for three years, I could get the service for less than what Yahoo charged for a place to put my previous website. The only complaint I have about Weebly so far is that they are slow responding to questions. When I have more experience, I will blog about it. By the time you read this, there could be a better service available. Do your research and don't spend more than you make.

For an example of a website created in less than an hour, see http://sidneywfrost.com.

BLOGS

Another way to sell yourself is with a blog. Blog is short for weblog, a way to provide discussions or information on the worldwide web. As we saw above, a blog could be included as a page within a website. Often, however, authors use one of the free blog services. Two popular ones are Google's Blogger and WordPress. I've tried both and only recently settled on Blogger. There are many useful features on WordPress, but I wanted all my blogs on the same service and most of the people I worked with used Blogger. Before deciding, check them both. Plus, see if there are others available.

If possible, start your blog before you publish your book so that by the time your book is out your blog will make you look like you've been around for a while. My blog, the Christian Bookmobile, has more than 500 posts and 60,000 pageviews.

See http://christianbookmobile.blogspot.com/.

Successful blogs include posts that keep readers coming back. Your overall goal may be to sell books, but you can't do that without attracting someone to your blog. Don't think about selling. Think about providing a service. An interesting story works. Some useful bit of information. How to do something. Where to find something. A contest with a desirable prize.

Statistics show that my blogs get more visitors when I have a giveaway. I'm not sure if all the visitors are potential book buyers, though.

Another blog post that draws many viewers is an exclusive interview of a major author. Of all postings, including contests and giveaways, the one visited most is a book review of Unconditional: A Novel by Eva Marie Everson. It has had more than 6,000 pageviews since it was published in September 2012.

Have a way for visitors to sign up, or follow. Some way for them to leave their e-mail address so you can contact them later. Encourage comments.

Blogging takes time away from writing the next book, so you will need to decide how much time to spend on blogging. One way to easily increase your blog count and pageviews, both signs of success in blogging, is to join forces with other bloggers. This can be done in several ways.

One approach is to join an alliance where you offer to post an article provided to you. I get one once a week and all I have to do is post it. Make sure the content is something your readers will appreciate. Participating in a blog alliance not only increases the number of posts on your blog, it also leads to more viewers.

Another way to simplify blogging is to create a blog with other writers who have similar audiences. When you all write articles, you don't have to write as many. And, if you all publicize the blog, you'll reach more people.

The third way to increase your blog count and get help directing people to your blog is to open your blog to guest authors. Authors with or without their own blogs may want to post an interview on your blog. But, don't worry, it's not hard work. Many will write the questions and the answers. All you have to do is upload it and post it. You should let the author know when it will be posted so he or she can direct readers to your blog.

How many blogs do you need? At least one for each group of readers.

TWITTER

Twitter is my favorite way to reach people quickly and perhaps convince some to buy a book. But, tweets are like blog posts in that you must be subtle. First, build up a following of people from your target audience, then keep them following you because your tweets are interesting or useful. A secondary goal is to get them to retweet your tweets to reach a wider audience.

If possible, set up a Twitter account before your book is published. This will give you time to gather followers. I see no benefit in buying followers unless a person's goal is merely a high follower count. I only want followers who might buy my books or recommend them to someone else. Building followers is slow. Initially I looked for people with similar tastes for me to follow. My reason was that Twitter makes it easy to follow back. The more people I followed, the more followers I'd get. At least that was what I thought.

I currently have 2,500-plus followers and the numbers continue to grow. Follower count goes up and down, so it is a constant effort to get more followers. I cleaned the list of people I follow by removing all corporations, non-profits, and government agencies. That gave me room for more people to follow. People who might follow me back. Now, when I get a new follower, I don't follow back unless they are in my target audience and then only if they have fewer than 2,000 followers.

I use Twitter mostly for automated tweets which I schedule to announce book specials. Look at TweetDeck for details.

One last comment about Twitter. I've seen some authors create a new Twitter account for each book and others use only one. I think multiple accounts may be needed if your books are for different readers. I only have one, but I can see how multiple accounts might be helpful.

FACEBOOK

I’ve had limited success with Facebook, and have stopped using it to reach readers. I was spending much more for ads than I could possibly make selling books.

However, I have found Facebook groups useful. I have one called Christian Writers Support Group. The purpose is to encourage each other by liking and sharing information. Anything you can do to join forces with others will help sales, and increase book reviews.

PINTEREST

Another way to get your name out there and attract followers is with Pinterest. Pinterest lets you easily create a collection of photos to share. I think everyone enjoys viewing pictures. Sometimes I look through randomly selected Pinterest boards just for the beauty I might find.

The nice thing about Pinterest is that the photos can come from the Internet. You don't need permission to use them since the photo will link to the site where you found the photo, giving them credit. There are some places that don't allow sharing of their photos, but Pinterest knows which ones they are, and you won't be able to pin those photos to your board.

How can using Pinterest help you as an author?

If your book is not yet published, create a board for your future readers. If you're writing a cozy mystery, for example, create a board called "My Favorite Cozy Mysteries." Your photos could be book cover images and you could add a short note about each book and why you selected it. Once your book is published, it would become one of the prominent pins on this board.

While writing The Vengeance Squad Goes to England I created a board with photos of locations and items used in the book. As I wrote the book, I added additional photos for each new scene. This served two purposes. First, the images helped me describe the scenes more realistically. Secondly, once the book was published, I included a link to the board, so readers could see photos of the places described in the book. See http://goo.gl/B6UFcX to check it out for yourself.

Another prepublication Pinterest board I made was one called Bookmobiles. The reason for this board is that bookmobiles are featured in each of my books. I'm still adding images to it. You may think of a similar use of Pinterest for your books. See http://goo.gl/NEXeZO for the bookmobile board. While you're there, follow me and check out the rest of my boards for other ideas.

GOODREADS

Goodreads is a place for readers to post their personal libraries. It is an excellent place for an author, publisher, or publicist to visit often. This is where readers hang out and talk about books. There are many opportunities for you to tell members about your books and we'll discuss these when we talk about implementing the marketing plan. For now, join Goodreads and start using it for your personal library. Ask book reviewers to post reviews here as well as Amazon. Even though Amazon owns Goodreads, they are still treating them as separate organizations.

Goodreads provides an easy way to promote your books with giveaways.

You might also want to start making friends and joining some of the many groups there, especially friends and groups in your target audience. Amazon purchased Goodreads in March 2013.

REVIEWING BOOKS

While we are discussing selling yourself, take time to decide whether you plan to review books or not. When I first got started in the business, I read a book about getting the most out of Amazon and the author recommended reviewing books like my own to help build name awareness. I did that, but I have since decided the author was talking about nonfiction books only. I'm not sure there is a benefit for fiction authors to review books other than trading reviews with other authors to increase review count.

Perhaps you may want to join a group on Facebook or some other social media where you can trade reviews with other authors. It seems the more good reviews you have, the more Amazon and other sites will publicize your book. The Fussy Librarian, for example, requires ten Amazon reviews with a 4.5 out of 5.0 rating to be included in their paid advertising. The thinking is that the number of reviews is associated with the quality of the book. Some bloggers require a certain number of reviews before they will advertise free and discounted books

As an author of nonfiction, reviewing books in the same category may make you look more creditable. Good reviews can show you know the subject and you know how to communicate. However, reviewing your competitor's books could be a problem. You either end up helping them or coming across like sour grapes.

There is a discussion in the implementing the plan section about how to get reviews. For now, all you need to do is decide whether you want to do reviews or not.

AUTHOR AND BOOK AWARDS

Another way to sell yourself is to get recognized in some way. There are writing contests for unfinished books as well as those already published. When I was writing my first book, Where Love Once Lived, I entered many contests. At that time, I thought it was a romance. I joined Romance Writers of America and learned there was a contest going on somewhere in the United States most of the year. I also learned entering contests was an excellent way to get feedback. Some of the suggestions made by contest judges ended up in the final book. In addition to grammar corrections and suggestions for descriptions, one judge warned me against including an abortion in the story, so I changed it to a miscarriage.

There was a charge for these contests, and back then, more effort and expense to copy and mail the manuscripts. Today, you can submit your writing electronically, but many contests still charge a fee.

To my surprise, I ended up winning several contests and placing in others. This helped validate my writing, and, I suspect, caused more agents and publishers to evaluate my work more closely. Each win got me closer to finding a publisher, but I eventually published the book myself.

When you look for contests to enter, evaluate the cost vs. benefit. There are some organizations that make money holding contests. There are others who I believe simply sell awards. That is, you pay, everyone wins. These types of awards are not the ones that will help you to sell yourself.

CONCLUSION

When looking at ways to sell yourself, another consideration is whether to emphasize yourself or your books. I see some people have a Facebook author page for each book. My feeling is that you should sell yourself by grouping similar books. I have published mostly Christian fiction, so my audience is the same for each book. However, if I decide to publish a book for authors on how to market books, I will have a different audience and may need to brand by book rather than name.

 

Naming Fictional Characters

I'm not in a critique group so my wife was the first to read my latest book. She found a lot of missing words, misused words, wrong words (installation instead of insulation), and she made comments about everything that didn't make sense. I made the changes and sent the manuscript to my friend Rollo. He's been a close friend since high school and he reads many books. With co-authors he published an anthology of mysteries set in Texas. I'm also sending a copy to three friends from church who have read the prequel and all three are readers, one an editor.

But, getting back to my wife's comments. She didn't care for the name of one of the characters because it was difficult to pronounce. Let me say first that I select character names carefully and have blogged about it in the past. See the following posts:

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 1

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 2

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 3

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 4

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 5

The name that bothered my wife was David Bownpole. She said Brownpole was easier to say. However, I don't like Brownpole because it is brown pole. This character's name was originally Kerwin Bownpole, but I changed Kerwin to David because Kerwin sounded too much like the main character Karen.

If you looked over the articles referenced above, you'll find reference to an online source for names. It is called Fictional Character Name Generator (http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/FictionNames.htm). Well this is where I got the name Kerwin and Bownpole. I can't remember if the first and last name came together or not since there is a family of Bownpoles in my book.  

So, now I'm going the process of finding the perfect name. I even posting a request on Facebook for help. Doing all this reminded me of the blogs on the subject I've already written and thought you might find them interesting and useful.

If you think of a good name, let me know.

Are You Addicted to High-Tech?

My peers and a few of the younger generation call me Mr. Facebook, but I'm not sure that is a complement or not. I tend to check-in and post several times a day. I'm retired and travel a lot so I set up tweets to publish automatically while we're gone and all the tweets go automatically to Facebook. I also have blogs that are prewritten and scheduled to post automatically. I'm even getting repined in Pinterest now, even though few of my friends have yet to join in the fun.

I'm no Camy Tang

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Camy Tang, but after working in the computer field for more than fifty years, I learn this new high-tech stuff pretty fast. After all I have a masters in computer science. On second thought, I guess that's worthless. Everything I learned is obsolete. Isn't that the way it is with college degrees? I guess all college graduates can say is that they had the gumption to follow the requirements of the school and the drive to do what was needed. That is worth something. What? Attitude? That's important.

I could be addicted

Like all good things, there is a tendency to overdo. My wife thinks I need to get away from the world of technology some. She's hinted at this before, but I think what finally convinced her was when I did a Facebook check-in during our anniversary dinner last week complete with photos and then made notes about a blog idea that came to me. She didn't mention it, but I don't think she liked the fact that I selected the restaurant because it was similar to a fictional one I had used in Where Love Once Lived and I wanted to check it out.

Tech-free times

So, we have these tech-free times now. It's not so bad. We are fortunate to have a place on the lake without television and with little to no phone service. ATandT is helping wean me from my daily data diet, too. The first time we were there I got this nasty email about using too much data download on non ATandT service. I talked to them on the phone about it and learned all I could do was turn off the phone while I was there. So, now I set it on airplane mode. Well, most of the time.

Finding the sweet spot

Last time I was there a neighbor with an iPhone just like mine said he gets phone service on the northwest corner of his dock near the white rod holder. I tried it, but it didn't work for me. However, that let me know there is ATandT service in the area. After searching for a signal for several days, I found a sweet spot. It's in the bottom right corner of my dining room window. The phone has to be touching the glass, so usage is limited to hands free only. I tried the area outside the window, but couldn't find a signal there.

My reason for searching for a place where I can get phone service, I told my wife, is in case someone calls. Some emergency type of thing. But I have to admit that when the phone touches that window pane in just the right spot, I can quickly download my email and see what's happening on Facebook. I guess I am addicted.

Hey! I'm writing more

Most of the time, I enjoy having a tech-free time. We read, work jig-saw puzzles and go for walks. There will be fishing soon. We've agreed the use of the laptop is okay for writing. Since there is no Internet connection for it, it is not considered a problem. I noticed I tend to write more when I'm not constantly checking email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and all the rest. So there is a benefit to this tech-free time after all.

Find the Perfect Name for a Fictional Character Part 5

In previous posts, we talked about several ways to find perfect names for fictional characters. Even though we go through the steps of finding the right name, sometimes we still need help. That's where the Internet comes in handy. It wasn't too many years ago that I used to search through phone books for character names. Now, I don't have to leave my house to find the perfect name.

I had to laugh out loud recently when Camy Tang, Christian author of Sushi for One, Deadly Intent, and more, went to Facebook to find a name for a character. In the middle of the night, she wrote: Anybody around? Quick, give me first and last name ideas for a nasty old lady. Twenty-four suggestions came in. Then Camy posted this: Thanks guys! I chose Velma Crackenburg (Tryphena Sturgeon was close 2nd). When this book comes out, I'll blog & mention all of you by name!

An hour later (still in the middle of the night where I live) another SOS came in from Camy: I need some ideas for names for old, rich men. Twenty-eight responses came in this time and I tried to come up with a suggestion. I never did see the name she selected, but at 8:23 pm that night Camy posted this: THE BOOK IS DONE!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!

I don't know if the person who suggested Velma Crackenburg used it or not but it sounds like one of the names you get when you use the Fictional Character Name Generator available on the web. See: http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/FictionNames.htm. It is fun to play with. All you have to do is click on the male or female button to get a name, first and last. Here are two examples: Trevin Wostfoot and Scarlet Frelfly. I would never use it, but it is interesting to play with, and great for people who want a fictional sounding name.

One source on the web I would use is http://www.babynames.com/character-names.php. This site is loaded with useful information that will help you find the perfect name. And, it is easy to read. There are eight short tips plus comments from readers.

I would love to hear from you about how you select names. As a reader, I sometimes wonder why writers pick names that are so similar I can't remember who's who. How about you readers. Let me know what you think about names of fictional characters you encounter as you read.

Social Media: How to Make It Work for You -- Rather Than You Working for It

--From the Writers' League of Texas 2010 Agents Conference.

The moderator was Shennandoah Diaz of Greenleaf Book Group. The panelists were: Scott Allen of BookRix, author Lynn Reardon, Jennifer Hill Robenalt of Robin Hill Media, and Rusty Shelton of Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists.

Rusty said that an author should act like a media outlet and a resource for others to use. When doing so, don't try to sell books. Provide content that others can use and you'll get your name out there. Jennifer agreed and said to talk about yourself the way you would at a party. Be real, knowledgeable, not superficial.

Be consistent about who you are and get the most out of the content you put out. Develop a following. The more followers you have, the better chance you have to get an agent. Use content in your blog that causes readers to keep reading and recommend your blog to others.

Include book reviews of books similar to yours in you blog. Review best sellers so that your reviews have a better chance of reaching more people. Most authors will want to link to you after a favorable review. Also, the author's agent and publisher will take note of you. They probably have Google Alerts set to find any information that mentions their client and their client's books.

Jennifer said to request an interview with an author for your blog. This will give you access to their publicity. Usually, all you have to do is send them questions and they'll send the answers for you to publish.

Scott said he found interviews generate more traffic than book reviews. Also, interviews take up more pages and there's more for the search engines to pick up. In addition, interviews last longer than reviews since interviews are about the author and reviews are about the book.

Rusty said to use Google Alerts to help find timely subjects for a blog. If you don't have time to do everything, the top priority is a blog and a website. After that comes Twitter followed by Facebook.

Scott said the fastest and cheapest way to get to the top of the Google search page is to have a video. Jennifer mentioned using http://animoto.com/ to help prepare a video.

See Paulo Coelho on Facebook for an example of using social media to advertise yourself and your books.

Lynn said she started using social media six months before her book came out. She calls it an accidental bestseller.

Jennifer mention virtual book tours with like-minded authors. Scott said he didn't do face-to-face tours and now regrets it. He recommends doing as many book signings and speeches as possible.

Rusty said you should publish your book for e-Readers and add links at the end to get to your website and/or blog.

Scott said to look for ways to link to a charity in your blog. This generates a wider audience while doing some good for the charity.

Lynn suggested sharing a dilemma with your readers. Get them involved. Readers want to know your writing process.

One of the panelists suggested http://www.mediabistro.com/ to learn more about using the media.

With Where Love Once Lived, I need to look for Christian Fiction groups in and around Austin for face-to-face meeting. I could offer to talk about my experience with CreateSpace, writing the book, and using social media for publicity.

If you have a book to sell, let me know if any of these suggestions from the panelists help.

Why It's Never Too Early to Start Thinking About PR & Marketing

--From the Writers' League of Texas 2010 Agents Conference.

The moderator was Shennandoah Diaz of Greenleaf Book Group. The panelists were: Marilyn Carter of Marilyn Carter Marketing and Communications, Lisa Lawrence of LL PR Media and Public Relations, and Jennifer Hill Robenalt of Robin Hill Media.

The panelists suggested getting ideas from other writers and publishers, especially those with books in your genre, by using Google Alerts. I use Google Alerts to see what's being said about my books, but I hadn't considered using it to get information about other, similar books. It's easy to use. Go to Google.com and click on more and then even more. From there, select Alerts and it'll be easy to figure out the rest.

Another idea I got in the session was to set up an author Facebook page. The panelists disagreed on whether to have one for each book or one for all books. After they discussed it, I decided it was best to have one for all books. This gives you a chance to sell yourself more and you don't have to get fans all over again when a new book comes out. I haven't set mine up yet, but when I do, I'll tell you more about it.

The panelists talked about the importance of videos to help sell your books. If you don't have the software to do it yourself, you may want to check out http://animoto.com/. I haven't tried it yet, but I looked it over and it looks promising. The use public domain photos and music so there are no royalty payments. There is a free version and a paid version.

Another suggestion was to look for blogs in your book category and add meaningful comments on as many as possible. Keep your comments to the subject and don't try to sell yourself. The benefit will come when other readers (and the blog authors) see your name and comments and decide to check you out. I've picked up several blog followers using this technique.

Publishers still use press releases, but they are seen by the panelists as necessary evils that don't do much to increase sales. Most of the people who receive them disregard them because they know the same message was sent to many other outlets. It would be better to send a unique message and pitch to each place you want some free advertising.

Many bloggers are looking for content. You can write your own questions and answers to send them. Make each one special. Look for blogs that do virtual book tours.

If you're doing a non-fiction book, and are an expert in some field, a good place to go is http://www.helpareporter.com/. You can sign up to receive queries from writers looking for expert information. You may then be quoted in a high-distribution publication along with the title of your book. I'm not sure it will be useful for fiction, but I signed up anyway.

Book Publishing Status Report

CreateSpace Projects:

LCCN Assignment--Completed. LCCN stands for Library of Congress Control Number. I also have an ISBN, International Standard Book Number.

Total Design Freedom Custom Book Interior--I approved the interior design (again) Friday, May 14, 2010. CreateSpace is now preparing the interior proof. I will have the opportunity to make text changes prior to the creation of the final files. I've been making notes of changes I want to make and hope I can get it all done soon. To see the latest interior design, see Where Love Once Lived.

Comprehensive Copyediting--Completed

Promotional Text Creation--Completed

Press Release Creation--Being prepared. Next is reviewing, approval, and final verification

Press Release Distribution--Currently scheduling. Next is distributing.

Publicity Kit--Currently working on proof. Printing is next. However, since the cover is used in the publicity items, I don't believe much will be done until the cover is complete. I'll tell you more about this later.

Illustrated Book Cover--The account manager called last Wednesday, May 12, 2010 to talk about the cover design. I told her I see a man and woman looking at each other with a bookmobile in the background with children near it. I said I would like a symbol to show it is a Christian novel, but I wasn't sure what. She said the artist would read everything they have about the book and then come up with a sketch. If I like the sketch, the artist will prepare two cover designs for me to chose from. She said it will be about ten days before I get the sketch.

This is a slow process. I can see now why it takes so long to publish a book. In addition to what CreateSpace is doing, I am writing a daily (M-F) blog called the Christian Bookmobile to help publicize the book and build title and author name recognition. By mentioning the book each day since March 31, 2010, the search engines have already picked up the title and the blog.

In addition to the blog, I've made contact with other Christian Fiction blog writers and am planning a virtual book tour using blogs. As soon as I have a definite publication date, I'll finalize the tour schedule. I'm also working on a Facebook fan page which I'll activate shortly before the publication date.

I've identified book reviewers who I will send sample copies of the book to in hopes they will review it. I will ask for honest opinions only and will not pay anyone for a fake review. If any of you would like to review the book when it comes out, please let me know. I can also send pdf versions sooner, but not until I quit changing it. Soon, I hope.

Also, I have identified book stores in both Georgetown and the Austin area, and will be talking to them about book signings. I'll prepare press releases for area newspapers as well and I plan to write articles for the newsletters of two of the writers' organizations I belong to.

Meanwhile, I should be working on my second book, Vengeance Is Mine. I've been so busy with Where Love Once Lived, I haven't touched the new book in several months.

Can Technical Writers Write Novels?

My friend Jimmy Clark posted this comment in Facebook:

I'm enjoying following your blog, Sid. Everyone who is good at technical writing dreams of writing a novel some day. Do you think this skill is transferable to writing fiction? Do creative writing classes help a lot. Thanks.

Here's my answer:

Thanks for the comments, Jimmy. Yes, I think technical writing skills easily transfer. It is communicating and technical writers know how to do that. Guy Perry, a friend who is a technical writer, helped me with the first draft of this book. It was amazing how much he improved it. I remember thinking at the time, how easy it would be for him to write a novel.

I took online classes from Writer's Digest. I started with basic creative writing, then short stories, then novels and advanced novels. I took the advanced one four times. It was mainly a way to get your work criticized by a professional novelist as well as classmates. Classes helped keep me on a schedule.

I took my classes through Writer's Digest's writers online workshops. See: http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/retail/. I checked it today and they are changing their name to Writer's Digest University. Writer's Digest has been around a long time in magazine format. I took correspondence courses from them years ago, before computers. They are reliable. Getting the right instructor makes a big difference in what you learn. Check out the instructors carefully. Don't just look at their bios. Check the books they've written. See if they have been successful or not. It is hard to find a successful author who also teaches, but they are there. My instructor, Bonnie Hearn Hill, didn't seem to teach for the money. I think she just loved the interaction with students. However, she is no longer on the author list at Writer's Digest. She is now teaching online classes at WritersEducation.com.

Thinking about Guy Perry, and how he helped me with the first draft of Where Love Once Lived, reminded me he wouldn't take money for editing my manuscript. When I insisted, he suggested making a contribution to my church, San Gabriel Presbyterian in Georgetown. That's what I did. And, since Guy is also a singer and long-time member of the Austin Lyric Opera Chorus, I knew he would approve of designating the donation to the bell fund. We now have a wonderful bell choir thanks in part to Guy and my need for an editor.