Orangeberry Book Tours - Check it out!

Besides the blog tour I've set up, for the next three months, my Dream of Things publisher, Mike O'Mary contracted with Orangeberry Book Tours to create an additional virtual tour for me. 

I've already had four Orangeberry-arranged stops with four more to go this week. See below. 

Although the jury is still out about whether this tour will boost sales of Leaving the Hall Light On, I already love the service. Pandora Poikilos, who began Orangeberry Book Tours a year ago, is very helpful and responsive. Even before the tour began Dora liked my author page on Facebook and has tweeted about my book many times. What a great business head she has. I think her service would work very well for my many author friends. I suggest you check Orangeberry out if you're looking to promote your book or sign on to be a blog host.

Here's the places I've been and where I'm going this week. Please check them out.

Check out where this author will be talking about her latest release!

5th October – Book Feature at Peace from Pieces

6th October – Author Interview & Book Review at Mommy Adventures

7th October – Challenges I Faced & Giveaway at Books are Magic

8th October – Challenges I Faced at Gimme the Scoop

9th October – Author Interview, Challenges I Faced & Book Feature at The Cover

10th October – Book Feature at Promiscuous Diva

11th October – Twitter View with Pandora Poikilos

12th October – Twitter Blast with Pandora Poikilos

Here's how to set a tour up for yourself:

I am an author

I would love to find out more & purchase a virtual tour for my book -
Sure, you’ll need to sign up HERE

I am a book blogger or an author
and I want to feature authors on my site - scroll down on this page, CLICK ON the book covers. pick a date & submit your info

Whoa! This is awesome but I have a few questions. - Sure, have a peep at our Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve looked left-right-centre and you haven’t answered my question? No worries, email me at pandorapoikilos@gmail.com

Late breaking book news

It’s time to bring you up to date with book news. It seems like things are moving so fast, I barely have time to do my novel and article writing. But it’s all good.

Books for Sale

As of yesterday the Kindle version of Leaving the Hall Light On is for sale. The paperback has been available for the last month or so. And in case you still like hardback books as I do, I have them for sale at my Amazon storefront at a reduced price of $21.50.

Marketing Events

Book giveaway at Goodreads. Hurry over there. It ends on August 28.

Google + Hangouts with Jason Matthews: Indie Authors #21 on Memoir Writing and Indie Authors # 24 on Writing as Therapy. I’ll participate in another hangout next Monday, August 27.

A September 13 roundtable with Linda Joy Myers of the National Association of Memoir Writers and Mike O’Mary of Dream of Things to talk about how I was able to contract with Dream of Things after my former publisher went out of business.

Readings at the Essay Fiesta and Waterline Writers and an interview on Rick Kogan's talk show on WGN radio – all taking place in Chicago in mid September (details to follow). Why Chicago? I grew up there and that’s where my publisher, Dream of Things, is headquartered. A great excuse to go back to my hometown.

And I’m scheduling a new blog tour to take place between October 1 and December 31. I’m so excited that many of the blogs that hosted me last year will host again during this tour. If you are interested in joining in, here are the details:

The Tour

The tour is open from October 1 to December 31, 2012. You can pick any date that works for you. And you can participate in one of three ways:

A.    Post a review of the book on your blog. 

B.    Post a Q&A with me using up to six questions from the list, below.

C.    Post a description of my book and conduct a contest to give away a free copy to one of your followers. (You can also hold a contest in conjunction with options A or B, if you like.)

If you would like to participate in the blog tour, please respond to this e-mail and let me know if you would like a print copy, a .mobi file (for Kindle), an .epub file (for Nook, iPad and other e-readers), or a PDF file. (The Kindle edition has just been released.)

Also, if you choose Option B (Q&A with me), let me know which questions you’d like me to address.

  

--

The Book

Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide charts the near-destruction of one middle-class family whose oldest son committed suicide after a seven-year struggle with bipolar disorder. Author Madeline Sharples goes deep into her own well of grief to describe her anger, frustration and guilt. She also shares the story of how she, her husband and younger son weathered every family's worst nightmare—including struggles with her own thoughts of suicide, and ultimately, her decision to live and take care of herself as a woman, wife, mother and writer.

·       "A moving read of tragedy, trying to prevent it, and coping with life after." Midwest Book Review

·       "Poetically visceral, emotionally honest." Irvin D. Godofsky, M.D.

·       "Moving, intimate and very inspiring." Mark Shelmerdine, CEO, Jeffers Press

The book is also available through my publisher, Dream of Things.

The Author

Madeline Sharples is an author, poet, and web journalist who spent most of her professional life as a technical writer and editor, grant writer and proposal manager. Through the tragedy of her son’s mental illness and suicide, she has become a thought-provoking expert on the affects of mental illness and suicide on family members—and, more important, on how to keep the surviving members of your family together and move forward in the aftermath of tragedy.

Questions for Option B, online Q&A with me (please select a maximum of six questions):

1.     What does the title of the book mean?

2.     What were the warning signs when your son first began to experience symptoms of bipolar disorder?

3.     How difficult was it for you to get your son to seek treatment and take medication for his illness?

4.     How do you give support and comfort to a person who doesn’t want support or comfort?

5.     How did you maintain your sanity after your son’s suicide?

6.     Did your marriage suffer as a result of your son’s bipolar disorder and suicide?

7.     How have you seen the stigma of mental illness and suicide play out in your life?

8.     What can a person do to help and comfort a family that has experienced a suicide or other tragedy?

9.     How did your elder son’s illness and suicide affect your thoughts toward your younger son?

10.  One of the ways you dealt with your personal tragedy is by writing about it. How did that help you?

11.  Who should read your book?

12.  What advice do you have for families that have been affected by mental illness or suicide?

And that doesn’t count my blogging, tweeting, Facebook posting, occasionally visiting LinkedIn and Pinterest, and writing for PsychAlive, Naturally Savvy, Open to Hope, and a new gig starting this month at Aging Bodies.

The Independent Author Network

I recently joined The Independent Authors Network and I think it is paying off already in turns of book sales and reach. I recommend it to my author friends out there who have stagnating sales rankings, and who don’t get a lot of marketing coverage. Now I think tweeting about my IAN involvement is a necessary part of my marketing work.

Here are few bits of information about the network. But I suggest you click here to find out more and to determine whether it’s something you’d like to do. And if you decide to join, click here. 

In the words of The Independent Author Network:

Q. What is The Independent Author Network?

A. The Independent Author Network is a group of like minded authors who are self published or published by a small indie press. The group is open to authors who are active social networkers at sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. The group works together to support and promote each other online.

Q. How does I.A.N. work? 

A. Members are asked to Tweet and Facebook their IAN Member page and the pages of the other authors. If a member has a new book releasing, a book signing, a blog tour or any event the info would be posted to our blog and the others Tweet, blog, Facebook etc. the event as their time allows. 

Q. What is the cost to join?

A. Yearly Basic membership is free at IAN, however to help cover rising site costs we require new members to please pay a one time set up fee If you have 1-6 books to promote the Membership setup fee is $24.95.Please contact us if you have more than six books to promote.

Q. Will I need to pay this fee yearly?

A. No this is a one time fee and will not be charged again!

Q. What else do I need to join?

A. All new members must have a book that is published or near publishing at a small mainstream independent press or is self-published. We ask that all members have a twitter. Other useful accounts include: Facebook, LinkedIn, GoodReads, Shelfari as well as a blog and website.

Book marketing - is there ever enough?

Okay, I’m on to another marketing project. 

I was overwhelmed and indeed impressed by the numbers of blogs Jessica Bell is going to visit during her two-week book launch blog tour for her soon to-be-released, String Bridge. And that got me thinking I hadn’t visited nearly enough blogs at the time of my book launch. I visited one blog a day for about three weeks, and she’s going to have interviews and reviews on up to seven or eight blogs a day for two weeks. Plus she’s going to have a whole lot of these same folks and more hit Amazon on the day of the book’s release. Now that’s using the network to the fullest, I would say.

With my friend Susan at my book launch 

with Ben in the background

I asked her how she amassed such a list and she admitted it was a lot of work. She reads and comments on all the blogs on her list regularly. And that’s why she felt she was justified in asking them to do this book marketing favor for her.

I know that’s true. Jessica visits and comments on my blog consistently, plus she read my book and wrote an incredible review that she posted on her own blog, The Alliterative Allomorph and on Amazon and Goodreads. That’s what I call being supportive. The goal of it is to sell books and not just one’s own.

As she sees it, we can all play a part in promoting each other’s books. On Tuesday we’ll all get a chance to do that on the Internet Book Fair. I’ll not only promote mine, but I’ll pick a couple of my writing colleagues’ books to promote as well. Come back on Wednesday and you’ll find out which ones.

So now that I have all this information and this need to be a copycat, it’s time to do something about it. Yesterday I started a list of blogs I’m familiar with, and today I transferred the list into a two-column word table with the name of the blog owner and email address in one column and the name of the blog and its link in the second. So far I’m up to over fifty candidates and still counting. I really was surprised how many I have just in my own frame of reference, and Jessica says I can go to hers if they seem appropriate for my book. Looking at her list, I’ve already found several that we have in common.

But that’s just the beginning. I need to, as Jessica suggested, be more consistent in reading and commenting on all these blogs. That’s the hard work. And that’s why I need quite a bit of lead-time.

I had originally thought I’d schedule this second blog tour at the six-month anniversary of the launch of my book, but that’s way to soon. Now I’m thinking I’ll kick it off at the time my eBook comes out – sometime next spring. That way I’ll have time to develop and reconnect with the blogs on my list and the ones still to be added. I’ll also need to set up a plan, after contacting everyone, about whether I’ll provide a guest post or answers to a questionnaire. Plus the blog owners who will review the book will have time to read it.

All that will take a lot of coordinating, so I’m thinking of asking my high school senior girlfriend if she’d like to assist me. I know I’d do a much more thorough and complete job if I have some help.

I think the moral of this story is that it takes lots and lots of time and attention to details to market a book. If I let myself I could be at it all day without any time left to write. I need to enter into this project with time for both.

If you Like me, what's the point?

My memoir book cover photo by Madison Poulter

There is a thread going on, on LinkedIn that goes like this: I’ll like your fan page and Amazon book page if you like mine. So I’ve been responding to a lot of those requests,  and now I'm up over twenty-five new likes in just the last week. 

But, I wonder what’s the point? Do these new likes translate into book sales? So far, I don’t think so. A few people that I've met through my social networks have said my book is on their list, but I haven’t seen a bump in my Amazon rankings as a result.

So with all this social media networking – over 900 Facebook friends, over 400 Facebook fans, almost 250 LinkedIn connections, and a constantly growing list of Twitter followers, I wonder where it is all getting me. And I find that keeping up all the connections is a lot of work.

Okay, I won’t be so down about it all. I’m only into this marketing game about six months. I’ve got to give it more time. Plus the fact that my book is a hard sell – like my son just said, hard to read but beautiful and powerful. I have to hang on to that beautiful and powerful comment and hopefully lots more people will agree.

Also, someone on LinkedIn just answered my what's the point? question that if he gets just one sale from all the exposure – that’s what it really is, exposure – he’ll feel it’s worth the effort. Okay I can go with that. I won’t be greedy. One sale is sure better than none.

By the way, if you care to Like my Facebook author page, click on the link.

My first radio interview - tomorrow July 5!

I'll be on: 

Smart Women Talk™ Radio Upcoming Guest

Listen Live on Tuesdays – 11 AM Eastern(8 AM Pacific )

Can’t Listen Live – Check Out our Show Archives!

Heard online around the World and in Seattle on 106.9 HD Channel 3

Tomorrow morning - July 5th, 2011

http://www.katanaabbott.com/radio-show-2/

My hosts: Katana Abbott (left) and Vicky Trabosh (right)

      

A little background. I met Vicky Trabosh, one of the hosts of Smart Women Talk, when I went to Portland over my birthday weekend. My sister Sheila took me to a luncheon and fashion show at their University Club and immediately upon entering she introduced me to Vicky. And as soon as Vicky heard about my book and its subject matter she asked me to be on her show. I of course said yes immediately.

      I sent out a list of questions with information about my book, including my bio and photo a couple of weeks ago. This week the folks producing the show got back with all the information and a page on their website devoted to me and their interview with me.

      Today I’ve been busily sending out emails, posting information about the interview on Facebook, and I created a Facebook event. I had to hand click every box on my list of over 850 Facebook friends. What is it with Facebook that it doesn’t have a Select All feature? All that clicking definitely makes my arm sore.

      Tomorrow I plan to post links again on my Facebook friend and author pages and the other pages I’m connected to: Putting a Face on Suicide, Loss of An Adult or Young Adult Child, Suicide Loss, Grieving Mothers, Poetry Pact, Poets, Writer, etc., and the Greater Los Angeles Writer’s Society. I’ll do that before the show starts at eight in the morning Pacific Time.

      I’ve also put up some documents on my computer screen: answers to the questions, my bio, and I have at the ready a short excerpt and a poem to read – just in case they ask. I really have no idea what to expect except that I know the show will last an hour. It’s definitely exciting. 

      Like Ben and I used to say before his tennis matches: he was excited, not nervous. That’s exactly how I feel right now.

WOW blog tour stop No. 14

A perfect segue to my blog post on marketing yesterday…

Today Women’s Memoirs has posted my answers to their questions about:

MEMOIR, BLOGGING AND PLATFORM BUILDING
 Marketing and Promotion on the Internet.

http://bit.ly/kp6bAC

They say, “As many of you well know, at Women’s Memoirs we are as interested in the marketing efforts that go into the promotion of a new memoir as we are in the actual writing. After all, in most cases, writing the book is only half the job. We need to get our work into the hands of readers. We need a platform to which we can draw potential readers and a variety of tactics for making our presence known.”

And they are so right. I’m finding the marketing of the book as much work or even more work than the writing.

I am so grateful to Kendra Bonnet and Matilda Butler for inviting to post on their wonderful Women’s Memoir site today about my book marketing experience so far and on June 22 when I answered questions about how writing a memoir helped me heal after my son Paul’s suicide in 1999. 

http://bit.ly/koJPP8

Kendra and Matilda have been most generous and caring with my story. Thank you so much to you both!

And another big thank you to Robyn Chausse and Jodi Webb at WOW Women on Writing for arranging my amazing blog tour.

So how's the marketing going?

Since my book launch and signing just after my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, was released in early May, I’ve spent the month of June on a blog tour, coordinated and managed by WOW-Women on Writing. I decided to embark on this tour because I had hosted two other WOW blog tour authors in the last couple of years, and it seemed like a great idea.

I’m sure I’ve said before that I’m a me-too kind of person, so there I was again, letting the WOW folks know that I wanted a tour too when my book came out.

And actually making that happen was quite easy. All it took was a decision about dates, blog post ideas that included the subject-matter of my book and general writing-related subjects, and $350.00, to cover their advice and counsel about post topics and their picking out and communicating (almost continually) with the blog owners where I would guest post.  The big bucks kind of took my by surprise, but very quickly I decided it would be worth it.

Also in June, my publisher and I shared the expense of a part-time publicist, one of my dear friends with a great background in PR who worked way more than she was paid. And she has worked out tremendously. She has scheduled two radio interviews during July and a review just posted on the "100 Memoirs" website. She also got a commitment to have me be the over 60 expert on a popular health and fitness website. She is continually pitching. Hopefully we can come to an agreement continue her services for another month, at least.

Because our budget is so limited I have had to jump in as well, and now that I’ve finished writing blog posts to fulfill my WOW blog tour commitments I have plenty of time.

First thing every morning I post all over Facebook – my friend and fan pages and other groups that are of interest – about what’s going on with my book. Then like now, I write a blog post, or a poem, or a journal entry. I must keep up with my writing or everything will fall apart, including me. 

Also, since the book came out, I’ve arranged to participate in two book signings as part of the Greater Los Angeles Writer’s Society, I’ve gotten friends to post reviews on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites that sell my book, I’ve submitted a book for review to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention in hopes that they’ll add my book to its bibliography, and I’ve given permission to a woman who is presenting a workshop on resources available for grieving parents and other family members at this summer’s national The Compassionate Friends convention to list my book as a resource and pass out information. 

That’s another thing. I’ve gotten bookmarks, flyers, and posters made. Everywhere I go from now on, I need to have something to give away.

Okay, then, has all this effort and not a small amount of money sold any books? Since there haven’t been a lot of comments on my guest posts, I have little indication that people who visit the blogs on my tour are interested in buying my book. And though I see great online rank fluctuations daily, my publisher thinks my online book sales are excellent. I just wish there was a place I could go everyday to find out the number sold everywhere.   Of course the evidence is the total of money I’ve earned. So far my expenses are way ahead of sales. But, it’s not even two months yet. I have a long way to go – at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

One month to go until launch. So what’s on my list of to dos now?

Last Friday at exactly 6:29 pm, my publisher sent off my manuscript to the printer. And exactly one month from then, my book will be launched. And right now I’m feeling overwhelmed with thoughts of what should I be doing to get ready, and even if I know what things I should be doing, will I know how to do them?

When the book I co-authored, Blue Collar Women, came out in 1994 I don’t remember doing anything to market the book. My co-author had done the research so she did a few radio interviews and that was it. She used the book in her college classes, but other than that, sales were poor. I certainly don’t want to have a repeat of that poor success. With that book I didn’t even get fifteen minutes of fame.

So far in preparation for my new book’s launch I’ve actively participated in Facebook – I have a friend page, I have a fan page, I joined two poetry groups, I joined a group of other parents who had an adult child die, and I regularly comment on pages related to my book’s subject – most notably The Compassionate Friends. And I’m on all of these pages every day in one way or another.

I also have a Twitter account though instead of using Twitter directly I have my blog and fan page posts appear on Twitter. Perhaps I need to change that, and comment on Twitter a few times a day as well.

I also have a blog that I post to at least three times of week. Usually my posts relate to my book, but once in a while I like to share about my family and post the photos I take when I walk along the ocean.

And, that’s not the end of it – at least for the short term.

We need to finish the Book Trailer.

I need to create a Press Kit that I’m happy to say, my friend with PR experience has offered to do for me.

I need to follow up with the Easy Reader local newspaper about the article they promised to do for me. And that reminds me there a couple of other publications to contact about getting articles in them as well.

And, right at this moment I need to start planning my first booksigning event. I’m going to do a little research. I’m going to attend a couple of other signings going on at the Pages bookstore to find out how other authors do these things. I imagine I have a lot to learn out there.

Plus, my husband says he’s going to plan a launch party to be held at our home on Mother’s Day – launch day. I hope he’ll invite all of you to come.

Pre-release jitters

As the days get closer to the release of my memoir, I seem to be getting more and more anxious. Though I got my first endorsement yesterday from one of the reviewers and it was absolutely terrific, I keep thinking what facts did I get wrong, what people did I offend by writing too much or too little about them, and how will I be able to handle the books signings and interviews that will surely be on my calendar in the weeks after its release.

I wonder if these are common thoughts for authors – especially of memoir. I took a class a while back from Maureen Murdock who calls memoir “unreliable truth” – that it, it is my truth versus anyone elses. For instance my husband has been reading a review copy and he is sure that the snowstorm that I write about didn’t happen in New York City when I say it happened. Well, I definitely stand by my memory, but it makes me wonder how many other things will he think I’m just flat-out wrong about. Besides having these about-to-be-released jitters I have a lot of things left to do on my plate before publication date. Here’s my list so far – though I’m sure this list won’t mean much to you, it’s very important to me and my marketing effort.

• Develop list of celebrities, authors, educators who might offer an endorsement and find out how to contact them (my cousin is helping me with this)
• Arrange book signing at Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services
• Get friends and family to arrange book signings (my sister is working on Powell’s)
• Develop list of blogs where I could post about the book as a guest (WOW is in the works, though not certain yet)
• Follow through with Martha re blurb on her blog Out on a Limb
• Contact UCLA Writer’s Program about getting publicized through them 
• Give blurb about book to Shalom for Ellen Bass’ monthly newsletter
• Ditto for Winning Writers
• Follow up about Easy Reader Interview
• Arrange for Beach Reporter interview
• Send out Evites re book signings at Pages, our local independent bookstore
• Keep posting about book signing at Pages on Facebook
• Keep on urging people to Like my author page and read my blogs

Writing this all down here helps. I’m sure I’ll think of more to do, but for the time being it is quite enough.

And of course the most important thing I need to do is Keep Calm. I really need to keep pinching myself as a reminder that this is all happening to me.