Jude St. Onge is a man on the run. He is an addict who has stolen a
large cache of drugs from Detroit drug kingpin Mitchell Parson, who is
determined to retrieve the drugs and take his revenge on Jude. After the
torture slaying of Jude’s wife, and the kidnapping of Jude’s daughter,
Angelina, the last thing Mitchell Parson expected to hear when he picked
up the phone was: “I have your sons.”
Dear fellow masochist, er… writer:
Guest Blog by author D.W. Swykert
Write Words Author D. W. Swykert offers marketing advice on blogs, blog tours, and how to use Social Media to get your books noticed on the Internet.
Before I get into how to
make your zillion, let’s be real for a second about the state of publishing. I
have a publisher of one of my books who told me the other day the current state
of publishing has him walking around like a gut shot bear.
I told him he could
quit worrying about publishing, most belly shots are fatal. He didn’t think
that was funny, and I do empathize with him.
The reality of the publishing
world is that websites like Amazon and B & N, when they say they sold nine
million books, what they’re really stating isn’t that nine authors each sold a
million books, but three million authors sold three books each, Amazon made
millions, the writers each made a few pennies. This is why I value publishers
like Write Words, Inc and look to support them as we promote our stories.
Without a huge publicity budget one of the best ways to do
this is through guest blog posts, with links back to our publisher’s websites.
You’ll make more money, and you’ll keep the Indie publishers, who do have our
interests at heart as well as theirs, in business.
The air is getting a bit
thin up here on my soap box, so, I’ll get down and tell you what I’ve learned
about book blog guest posts and interviews.
If you’re considering putting out earnest money to join a
blog tour, perhaps you might reconsider and simply organize your own tour. In
the past year I have done a little over sixty guest blog posts or interviews.
I
found blogs to query by simply Googling book blogs with the genre of book I was
looking to post. Most of the blogs also have a list, or blog roll, of the blogs
they are following, which is a good way to find further blogs to submit to.
I
would like to say, like Amanda Hocking, who rose to fame and made millions by promoting
her paranormal romances on book blogs, I no longer have to do anything but
daydream to earn a living.
And what Amanda did is a testimonial to what is
possible, but I’m not that lucky, good, or cute, and I write crime stories and
some literary fiction, even a historical romance, but nothing from any land
beyond the clouds, and nothing that sucks blood, only shoots people.
I have
more of a niche market, and long ignored the advice, which is perhaps good
advice, to write many books in a single genre.
But I have and continue to post on blogs, and with good
reason. Even if the posts or interviews, which, I’m gabby, so I find interviews
to be a lot of fun, don’t relate into mammoth sales, it helps build your
“brand” and reader’s platform.
It puts your name out there and in the heads of
readers and potential book buyers. And besides simply wanting to write what
interests me, I thought perhaps giving readers a variety of genres to choose
from might also be a good strategy.
I write a blog guest posts the same way I’d write a book,
like a movie. I imagine a scene unraveling in my head like a short film and put
it down on paper. I see story writing as daydreams you type into a file.
I try to let the reader know something about my book, but
also about how I write and any other pertinent information or research to the
theme of my story. I try not to keep it too long as long essays turn readers
away before they even get started.
With that I’m going to take my own advice
and wish you all very happy blogging, and great success with your books. I know
how hard it is and how much of yourself you’ve invested in the endeavor.
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