Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books with Suspense Author Karen Harrington

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is Karen Harrington, author of Janeology.

I was suburban housewife mopping my kitchen floor when Kunati Books called last year with an offer of publication for Janeology. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello.

Publisher: Yes, we’re calling about Janeology. Is it still available?

Me: Seriously. Who is this?

Publisher: We’re completely serious, Ms Harrington. We’d like to make an offer. We think Janeology would make a great summer read.

Me: Bob, is that you? Quit toying with me. It’s just mean.

Publisher: No, we’re very serious. All the books at Kunati have a distinctive voice. Your book would fit well with all of our great titles.

(Sound of phone dropping to floor.)

Okay, so maybe that’s not EXACTLY how the conversation went. But it certainly had the same effect. And from that moment on, it’s been as if I had to become fluent in a new language called book promotion. There are thousands of books released each season – most by authors who already spoke this new language with great aplomb. No pressure.

I quickly learned that the modern novelist needs more than a great manuscript to succeed:

• An engaging cover design
• Reviews in Booklist and Publishers Weekly
• A provocative trailer that interprets the heart of the story
• Guidance for those new to the blogging scene

Fortunately, my wonderful publisher, Kunati Books, put ALL these tools in my book promotion suitcase. I’ve been able to use every one of these items in some form of book promotion. One of the best things I did was to use the wonderful Janeology cover and incorporate it into a bookmark, along with my synopsis and my website address. Those bookmarks are always with me. I use them the same way others use business cards. And who doesn’t like to get a bookmark?

The book trailer has also been pivotal. Not only is it on my website, but I also loaded it on my laptop to show at booksignings. It’s a dramatic way to represent the conflict that sets the story in motion.

And of course the new writer would be lost without the Internet and all the social connections to be made there. You can link to all sorts of social networking sites with other authors and very soon, you are sharing valuable information, resources and in my case - great new friendships with other authors. I’m on MySpace, Facebook and Goodreads.com – all of which have increased my ability to meet readers around the world. (The only downside is that I keep discovering great books to add to my reading stack!)

No product is known without its own website. Early on, I set up a website for Janeology. I’m glad I started it early because I’ve been able to expand and change it as my fluency in the language of book promotion has increased. For instance, in addition to book excerpts and links to my blog, I now have a wonderful page featuring the complete family tree chart for all the characters in Janeology where readers can trace the birthdates, birthplaces and settings of the story. Because my own personal passion is genealogy, I also include many of the heirlooms and family photos which made me first ask the seminal questions about nature, nurture and who we descend from that inspired Janeology.

Check it out at www.karenharringtonbooks.com and let me know what you think.

Karen Harrington is a Texas native who has been writing fiction for more than twenty years. Her writing has received honors from the Hemingway Short Story Festival, the Texas Film Institute Screenplay Contest and the Writers’ Digest National Script Contest. A graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, she has worked as a speechwriter and editor for major corporations and non-profit organizations.

She authored and published There’s a Dog in the Doorway, a children’s book created expressly for the Dr. Laura Schlessinger Foundation’s “My Stuff Bags.” My Stuff bags go to children in need who must leave their home due to abuse, neglect or abandonment.

She lives in Plano, Texas, with her husband and two children.

You can visit her website at www.karenharringtonbooks.com.

Karen’s virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion at www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com and choreographed by Dorothy Thompson.

It’s My Review and I’ll Cry If I Want To, Cry If I Want To

I was listening to a radio show tonight and the host and author were talking about book reviews. The host said that if it scored below a 3, then she wouldn’t review the book, or wouldn’t post it, one or the other.

I know they say if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, but I absolutely adore honest reviewers. The snarkier the better because in my opinion, that’s telling me this reviewer has guts and doesn’t give a damn about how anyone feels. That’s telling me that this reviewer is putting her or his integrity on the line and feels that if they sugar-coat a bad book, then their reputation will go right down the toilet.

Sure, we can keep in mind that everyone’s opinions vary - what you like, I might not like - and that all goes with the territory.

Susan Jensen of Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books…now that’s a chick who will tell you how it is. She’s not sugar coating anything and that’s why I simply adore her. My authors might not adore her after they read her scathing reviews, but you gotta admire this woman’s chutzpah. If she doesn’t like it, she’ll let you know.

And, again, we all have to keep in mind that it’s one person’s opinion over another.

But to the author, well, it’s the curse of death. You might as well had advertised it on Oprah or plastered it on a bulletin board at the Super Bowl because the author gets really really upset when this happens.

When an author reads a bad review - even though they know in their heart that the reviewer hit the nail on the head - all she or he can think about is that fifty million people are going to zero in on that review and they start going psycho thinking now, because of that one review, no one is going to buy their book.

It happens. If you are an author, you know the deal. You’ve been there, done that. It isn’t pretty, is it?

Of course not because this is your book and this book is what proves to the world that you can write. If someone else tells you that you can’t write, it’s like a kick in the gut.

But you know what I think the worse part about getting a bad review is? The fact that it’s plastered on a public place for all the world to see. It’s not so bad that someone else thinks your book stinks, but when someone posts this fact or fallacy in a public place, then it’s hide my head in shame or get on the boxing gloves because I’m not going down without a fight.

About a year ago, I had a book that I wrote with two other writers. For four years, we let the manuscript sit. One of my co-authors decided to go for a publisher that had just started up and I knew that the book needed major editing but I figured (big mistake) that the publisher would take care of it. Well, the publisher didn’t take care of it.

A couple months after its release, the reviews came in. One “friend” decided to post for the world to see that the book needed editing bad. The thing is, it was posted at Amazon.

I knew it needed editing and had told my co-authors it wasn’t ready but I trusted this publisher to make everything right.

The publisher has gone bankrupt and the book is no more, but it only goes to show you what lessons we can learn with each review. Sure, it’s only one person’s opinion, but this is the very reason not to let your book go out without a professional editing job and then go over it yourself with a fine-tooth comb because once it’s out there, it’s prime bait.

I had my good cry, but it opened up my eyes to how important it is not to let your book go out there unless it’s the best it can be.

And I’ll guarantee that once it’s the best it can be and you feel there’s nothing else you can do to better it, then at least you can say you’ve done your best and you only have yourself to fault if you didn’t.

Bad reviews come with the territory. Have a good cry, lick your wounds and go on.

And, go on, you will.

I guarantee it.

Have you ever had a bad review?  How did you handle it?