Guest Blogger: Lisa Dawn

The crew of the Grip would like to welcome Lisa Dawn, Marketing Director from The Wild Rose Press.

Arming Yourself with the Marketing Basics

My Space, blogs, Yahoo loops, live chats, websites…

An author has an arsenal of options available to them—so choose your weapon.

The best advice I can give you is to do something you enjoy. If you’ve never been a blogger, don’t enjoy visiting and posting on other blogs, then don’t start a blog. If you don’t like a lot of email in your inbox, then posting to yahoo loops isn’t for you. The Internet is limitless in its reach, but it can also be overwhelming. Don’t try to do everything, but plan the best use of those marketing minutes. And if something isn’t working for you, move on. You can easily take the pleasure out of writing by trudging through promotion hell.

So starting with the basics:

• A signature line – Every email you send is an opportunity to tell someone about your book. However, don’t overwhelm your contact. A simple signature line will include your name, website, and perhaps the title of your current release. If you don’t have a website, use your publisher’s website, but make the website link to your book buy page.


• Blogs – Blogs are free and easy to use, but the important aspect is to be consistent and be persistent. It takes time to build a readership.


• Websites – They should do more than look good. Most authors have a website, but are you using yours as a promotional tool? It’s nice to have photos, signing dates, release information and buy buttons. But your website can do more. Showcase your talents. This is a reader’s first taste of your work. Give them excerpts and give them a reason to return. One option would be to offer a free short story to anyone who signs a guestbook. Hold monthly contests. This is a great way to start building a mailing list. Also, update your page. New reviews, new releases, any news should be posted.


• My Space – A promotional juggernaut, but it doesn’t have to be a huge time drain. Check your page once a week, spend thirty minutes a week requesting friends and utilize the features. One of the things My Space can do is increase your presence in a Google or Yahoo search. But in order for it to work you need to post on other My Space pages and have “friends” post on yours. Some important things to think about when setting up your page. Use as many key words about your writing in your heading and in your content as you can. For example, if you write suspense, when someone does a My Space search for an author who writers suspense, you want your name to pop up. Suspense, author, romance, and any other word that helps distinguish your work—these are key words that need to be in your profile. If MySpace is your marketing tool, make sure it is working for you.


• Live chats – Many review sites have chat rooms and many publishers have chats. The Wild Rose Press holds a weekly chat in their website chat room on Tuesday nights at 9 pm ET. These are great places to meet readers. When hosting a live chat be sure to let your author personality show through. If you write romantic comedy, you’ll want that light jovial tone to come across. This is a way to let readers get to know you the author.


• Yahoo loops – Do you start your own or work with what’s out there? Once again this boils down to time. Most review sites and publishers have Yahoo loops for promoting your books. However, I think one of the best solutions is combining forces. If you’re going to start a loop, ask a few fellow authors, writing in similar genres, to join you. Then you aren’t alone in keeping the loop active. (I also think this is a good idea for starting new blogs.)

However you choose to market your work, be sure it reflects you as a writer. Think about whether you want hot, nearly naked men on your website if you write inspirational romance. When someone visits your website or other promotional spot, they should instantly recognize your brand. Branding helps a reader understand who you are as a writer and what they can expect from your books regardless of the genre.

Lisa Dawn
Marketing Director
The Wild Rose Press
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

Thanks to Lisa for sharing her wisdom with us today. Here's a promotion she'd like you to check out. Click on the picture for more information.

Always A Cowboy, available now!

What a sense of completion, to finally finish my first series! Yep, as of Friday, the Love at the Crazy H series is officially complete. For those of you who have been waiting and prodding me for Trip's story, well, here it is: TA DA!

So here's a taste of Always a Cowboy, available now from the Wild Rose Press. Click on the cover for more information!

Blurb: Trip, the youngest Hall brother had a nice career going in Los Angeles until a car-crash gone wrong destroyed his future as a stuntman. Now he’s back in Shirley learning how to walk again and learning to be a single dad to baby Trevor. He doesn’t have time in his life for a woman, especially one with a three-year-old daughter. Beth learned her lesson back in high school about Trip’s playboy ways, and she knows better than to give her heart to him again. But when a stalker targets Beth and her daughter, will Trip be able to save them in time? When old friends reunite, danger threatens and sparks fly.

Excerpt (G)
Beth Corcoran watched warily as Trip Hall approached. Tall—about six foot three now that he was done growing, she thought, and lean as ever. He was limping and it took all her willpower not to run over and take the heavy plate and bottles of water out of his hands. She’d heard about his accident—Shirley was too small of a town for her not to—but this was the first time she’d laid eyes on him since he’d moved back home last winter. In fact, since she’d been working with Rhiannon to design a website for the bookstore, she actually knew far more about Trip—and the rest of the Hall family—than she wanted to.

“Lizzie? Is it really you?” He flashed her that mega-watt Hollywood smile which showed the one dimple in his left cheek, and handed her one of the bottles of water. After he set his plate down on a nearby stump, he held out his right hand for her to shake.

She took the water, shook his hand and smiled back, trying hard to ignore the miniscule tingle that ran up her arm at such a casual touch. Just one look in those sky-blue eyes of his had her heart going pitter-pat. She tried not to notice that his wavy black hair had been freshly trimmed, though that one rogue lock still fell across his forehead—just like it always had. She’d spent all of high school resisting the urge to smooth it back out of his face.

“It’s me, all right. Though I go by Beth these days. You’re looking good, Trip.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the year?

He shrugged, his broad shoulders rippling beneath the jacket of his western-cut suit. He and CJ had stood up with Fitz, and were all dressed up, while most of the guests were in what she called “Wyoming casual”—sweaters with denim or flowered skirts on the women, while the men wore pressed jeans and bolo ties topped by either western blazers or denim jackets.

“I’m alive. I’m walking. These days, that’s about as good as I can ask for. How have you been doing, Liz—Beth?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” she answered vaguely. It would be so easy to fall into those eyes and drown, to forget all the reasons she needed to steer clear of charming playboys. She chanced a look at his face, saw the new lines that bracketed his eyes, the thin white scar on his temple, and she allowed him a real smile. She was so damned glad he was here and alive. Even if he’d unintentionally broken her teenage heart, she’d never wanted him hurt. “I heard about your injuries last year. It’s good to see you up and about again.”

He nodded, giving her his trademark lopsided grin, the one that had haunted her dreams all through school.

“Thanks. But that’s the way it goes, I guess. Life throws you curveballs and you either swing or watch them go by. And if you’re smart, you learn a little something along the way. So here we are, older and hopefully wiser.”

She couldn’t stop the wry laugh that emerged as she nodded. “Yeah, that about sums it up, doesn’t it?”

“Mommy, why’d you stop?”

Beth looked down at her almost four-year-old daughter and realized she’d quit pushing the swing. “Sorry, kiddo. Mommy was just talking to an old friend.” She obediently gave Bailey’s bottom another gentle shove.

“She’s a beauty, just like her mom,” Trip offered warmly. “What’s her name?” The compliment rolled so smoothly off his practiced lips that Beth didn’t think he even knew he was doing it. Trip had always been able to effortlessly charm any woman from one to one hundred. That was what made him so dangerous. She was a grown-up now, with responsibilities. She couldn’t afford to fall under the hypnotic spell of Howard Hemingway Hall—better known as Triple H or Trip for short.

By now, though, Bailey was staring at the intruder with rapt curiosity. “My name’s Bailey,” she offered proudly. “What’s yours?”

“This is Mr. Hall, honey. He went to school with Mommy a long, long time ago.”
Trip laughed and gravely shook the little girl’s hand, making Beth’s heart twist even tighter.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Bailey.” He straightened and turned to Beth. “It sure seems that way, doesn’t it? It’s only been fourteen years since graduation, but it seems like a hundred.”

If only he knew. Some of those years had dragged like centuries. But Beth pasted her polite social smile back in place. “I think Harper is trying to attract your attention.” She pointed across the park to where Trip’s oldest sister was collecting up members of the Hall family for the photographer. “It was nice seeing you again, Trip. Bye now.”

He grimaced and picked up his plate. “You too, Beth. See you around sometime.” He turned and limped away.

She muttered beneath her breath, “Not if I see you first.”

Find out more at www.thewildrosepress.com
Or www.cindyspencerpape.com

Welcome Guest Blogger, Multi-Published Author Judith Rochelle!

The Oh Get A Grip crew is thrilled to welcome today's guest blogger, multi-published author, Judith Rochelle:

Vacation? Vacation? Not this one

Many years ago my father-in-law remarried and his new wife fame complete with two full-grown married children. And their children. The son was smart enough to live in Albuquerque but the daughter lived in Michigan, where we were living at the time. And the newlyweds thought it would be wonderful if---let’s call them dick and Jane---went on a vacation with my husband and me. Over Christmas. To Puerto Rico, where we already had made vacation plans.
Going on vacation with Dick and Jane was like traveling with—well, what can you say, for example, about a woman in her thirties who brags about buying her panties in the children’s department and they all have the day of the week on them.

So, okay. We rearrange our plans and we’re off on vacation. Right. Also, from Michigan to Miami we had their children who were being delivered to the grandparents for two weeks. We pick up Dick and Jane and their kids and head for the airport. Only to get there and realize Dick has left his wallet on his dresser. At home.

“I’ll be back before the plane leaves,:” he assures us.

“Sure,” we say. Meanwhile Jane and the kids are about to become hysterical.

Dick leaves us all at the airport and speeds off to retrieve his wallet. We have the pleasure of escorting to Miami three people who have never flow before and are hysterical the minute we enter the waiting area. Then they refuse to get on the plane until Dick gets there, but the plane is loading so we are now dragging the three of them, kicking and screaming, onto the plane. And as we pull away from the gate, there’s Dick, plastered to the window, looking out at the departing plane. Now there are some real hysterics to deal with.

We land in Miami as I’m about to slit my throat and hand the kids over to the grandparents while my husband tries to find out what happened to Dick-who it seems is now being routed through New York. At Christmas. And everyone insists on sitting with us in the airport until the plane for San Juan leaves.

So we get on the plane for San Juan, with only Jane by now, who proceeds to drink four glasses of wine because she’s so upset. Which we paid for. We land in San Juan and can’t find a cab to take us to our hotel which is too short a ride for them unless we pay double the fare. And of course, to make things better, when we go to check in, the one thing Dick and Jane were responsible for got screwed up. Instead of changing the reservations, they cancelled them.
Did you ever see a wilds woman screaming at the top of her lungs waving a confirmation in the air and turning the air blue with every profanity known to man? I think they gave us rooms just to get us out of the lobby.

Of course the restaurant isn’t open---it’s Christmas Eve---we haven’t had lunch OR dinner, and Jane is now not only hysterical but drunk. And Dick has not shown up. We enjoy a fabulous meal from the vending machines sitting in the lobby, because Jane won’t go to her room until Dick arrives, and she’s getting weepier by the minute.

We finally, at three in the morning, persuade her to go to her room and we are just settling into our beds when we hear Bam! Bam! Bam! next door. Dick has arrived! Yay!

From there things only got worse, including Jane hailing police cars as taxis because they had lights on top, and Dick taking them on a motorcycle ride to the rain forest, only to have Jane fall off and Dick not notice it for an hour.

So here’s my advice to you. Since you can’t choose your relatives, at least you can choose not to go on vacation with them.

Judith, can you tell us about one of your books?

Redemption

Blurb: Lisa Mallory’s marriage from hell ended with her husband, Charles’s, unsolved murder. Once a suspect herself, she barely survived the scandal that erupted when his secret life was revealed. Four years later, her life finally back on track, her eight-year-old son is kidnapped and not returned, despite the ransom payment. Every public and private agency has failed to turn up clues to Jamie’s whereabouts or the identity of his kidnapper. Now she’s left with just one option- Ethan Caine, a friend of her brother’s and a burned-out Special Ops warrior for whom she has nothing but contempt. When he turns up evidence that Jamie is being held somewhere in Mexico, she insists on going with him, over his strong objections. But in the exotic environment of the lush Quintana Roo jungle, passion explodes between them, and they wonder if it’s possible they could dare to hope for the future.

Excerpt:

Of course it was raining. How fitting, Lisa Taylor Mallory thought, as she shifted on the folding chair provided by the cemetery, carefully not to move out from under the umbrella the funeral home attendant held over her. Next to her, four-year-old Jamie snuggled closer to here, needing the assurance of his mother’s warmth.

Dr. Howard Devol, pastor of Alamo Baptist Church, under his own umbrella, was intoning passages from the Bible. He had already eulogized Charles to the point of sainthood. Lisa had clenched her fists and swallowed the nausea the insisted on rising at the back of her throat.
Let it be over. Please, please, let us just get this over with.

She let her gaze travel over the crowd of mourners. The cream of San Antonio society and the financial world gathered in their best funereal attire to mourn a man whose sins were swept in fire at the foot of a mountain. Everyone had come, afraid of the fallout if they stayed away. The abundance of black umbrellas nearly formed a canopy of the assemblage.

The funeral was for Jamie, for whom this had all been so frightening. He needed, even at his age, to have closure and known his father would be on a path to Heaven. He could say his prayers at night and feel he had a direct link to him.

Beside her, she felt her brother, Josh, squeeze her arm, a signal that said everything will be okay.

Okay wasn’t exactly the word she’d have chosen to describe the current state of her life. She clenched one gloved hand in her lap. No, okay, wasn’t even in the ball park.

At last the interminable ceremony was finished. Josh rose and nudged her to stand with Jamie. The pastor signaled her to come forward. With Josh’s arm supporting her, she stepped forward to the casket and took the white rose the pastor held out to her. She stared at the casket for a long moment, then dropped the rose on its mahogany surface.

In a voice so low only her brother heard it, she said, “Rot in hell, you son of a bitch.

Buy it now at: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/

Check out Judith's website at http://www.judithrochelle.com/