NY Times Bestselling Author Lisa Jackson on Virtual Book Tour in August!

I’m proud to announce that NY Bestselling Author Lisa Jackson will be touring with us again at Pump Up Your Book Promotion in August! The book on tour this month is called LEFT TO DIE and looks scrumptious! Here’s the cover:

Is that the most beautiful cover you’ve ever seen? More details on Lisa later, but if you’re interested in hosting her on your blog via an interview, book spotlight or a review, let us know before slots fill up. This book will be touring in August, so the deadline to apply to host her will be the last week of July. Here’s your chance to take part in a virtual book tour with a NY Times bestselling author! If you’re interested, email me at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com with the words “I want to host Lisa Jackson” in the title.

Become a part of the LEFT TO DIE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08 campaign by contacting us early!

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Tim Bete and Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” MacDougall to give away book today!

Tim Bete and Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” MacDougall are my special guests at Pump Up Your Book Promotion Social Network’s Author Day today! Tim and Cap’n Billy are the authors of the new humor/parenting book GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING. You can visit their tour page here to find out more about them, then come on over today from now to 10 p.m. at the Author Day section of our social network and join the party! Leave a question and Tim and Cap’n Billy will answer them all, plus give away a free book to one lucky person who participates!

Woohoo…ahoy matey!

June is ‘Book Reviewer Month’ at Blogcritics Magazine!

To promote the release of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, co-author Mayra Calvani will be interviewing 15+ reviewers and review editors during the month of June. Learn all about the business of book reviewing and what’s in the mind of some of the most popular reviewers on the internet today. Some of the guests will include: Alex Moore from ForeWord Magazine, James Cox from Midwest Book Review, Irene Watson from Reader Views, Andrea Sisco from Armchair Interviews, Magdalena Ball from The Compulsive Reader, Sharyn McGinty from In The Library Reviews, Lea Schizas from Muse Book Reviews, Linda Baldwin from Road to Romance, Hilary Williamson from Book Loons, Judy Clark from Mostly Fiction, and many others!

To see the complete lineup, visit: The Slippery Book Review Blog.

Between June 1st and June 30th, stop by Blogcritics and leave a comment under the reviewer interviews for a chance to win a Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tour ,OR, as an alternative to a non-author winner, a $50 B&N gift certificate!

Pump Up Your Book Promotion Social Network: Virtual Book Tours Q&A and Author Day Information

Cheryl Malandrinos of Pump Up Your Book Promotion has started a discussion at the Pump Up Your Book Promotion Social Network for those interested in learning more about virtual book tours. As we have been in the business for a year now, we’ve become experienced experts in the field. If you would like to ask us a question about anything regarding virtual book tours, visit the link and we’ll be more than happy to address those questions.

The Pump Up Your Book Promotion Social Network was opened to allow authors to promote their books without cost. Sign up and brag, brag, brag. There’s a sub-group in the left hand side that allows excerpts and another one that allows reviews and everyone is invited to submit. All you have to do is sign up and post.

If you are interested in our special section called Author Day which includes an entire day of promotion in a question and answer format, we do have to charge for this but you’ll get your own page with book cover, buying information, author bio, book blurb and promotion for the event prior to the date you will appear. We use the same format of promotion we use for all our authors on tour, so you get more than your money’s worth. We are booked for June, but do have openings in July. The cost is $25. If you are interested, email me at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com and I’ll send you the application for it.

Our list of authors scheduled for Author Day in June include:

June 2 - Karen White, author of the fiction novel, THE MEMORY OF WATER
June 4 - James Burns, author of the financial book on how to get rich, THE 3 SECRET PILLARS OF WEALTH
June 9 - Victoria Wells, author of the multicultural romance, A SPECIAL SUMMER
June 11 - Traci E. Hall, author of the paranormal romance, LOVE’S MAGIC
June 13 - to be announced
June 16 - Steven Baldwin & Karen Holgate, authors of the non-fiction book about the American school system, FROM CRAYONS TO CONDOMS: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS
June 18 - Grace Reddick, author of the children’s book, ASHLEY’S UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER
June 20 - Candis C. Coffee, author of the literary fiction novel, MARIPOSA
June 23 - Phyllis Zimbler Miller, author of the woman’s fiction novel, MRS: LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL
June 25 - Linda Merlino, author of the literary fiction, BELLY OF THE WHALE
June 27 - Peter Bowerman, author of the book on self-publishing, THE WELL-FED SELF PUBLISHER: HOW TO TURN ONE BOOK INTO A FULL TIME LIVING

All authors are giving away free books!

If you are one of our past clients and would like a stop at Author Day, your fee is waived, but you must book early as we only have a limited amount of stops.

Thank you!

Historical Fiction Author Andrew Jalbert Joins Us on Author Day Today!

Join us on Friday, May 16, 2008 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. when historical fiction author Andrew Jalbert visits us at the Author Day section of our social network at Pump Up Your Book Promotion! Leave a question and Andrew will answer them all on Friday, plus give away a free book to one lucky person who participates!

About Andrew:

Award winning freelancer Andrew Jalbert has been a professional archaeologist and scuba instructor for over 15 years. During that time, he has worked throughout the Great Lakes, the Caribbean, Central America, Southern Africa, the Florida Keys, and Hawaii. His work focuses on tropical subjects–both above and below the water–and he is a regular contributor to scuba diving, natural history, fitness, and travel magazines. Andrew currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

You can visit his website at www.jalbertproductions.com.

About the Book:

What are the elements of friendship that last a lifetime-the mysterious connection that can outlast great distances and more than half a century of separation to bring friends back together? For Lázaro, a salty Cuban mariner and Dominic, a brilliant Chicago engineer, the answers can be found in the game of chess.

From the time of their meeting and first chess match on Key West in the 1930s, each man’s win is scratched into the back of the board. As the game tally grows, so does their friendship. Now, both men are in their twilight years, but it’s Dominic’s life, weathered by cancer, which is reaching its conclusion. Lázaro, who fled from his island home and his friend years ago, learns that Dominic is rapidly dying and sets off on the long journey from Boston to Florida to see his old friend. Prior to leaving, Lázaro retrieves the old chessboard and makes a startling discovery. The number of scratches, first marked over sixty years before and uncounted until now, has the two men evenly tied.

As he drives towards Dominic and the keys, Lázaro is forced to confront a past he has struggled to forget while anticipating the reunion with his old friend and what could be their final game.

Virtual Book Tour Workshop

This Friday, April 18th, Cheryl Malandrinos of Pump Up Your Book Promotion will be Dennis Griffin’s guest on Blog Talk Radio for a Virtual Book Tour workshop. They will talk about virtual book tours and also answer questions from callers.

The link to Dennis’ show is www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin.  The show will be archived on the site shortly after its completion and can be played backor downloaded.  The number to call in is (646) 478-0982.

I hope you’ll join them on Friday, April 18th at 11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern for this Virtual Book Tour workshop!

Pump Up Your Book Promotion Names Tristi Pinkston January Blog Host of the Month!

Pump Up Your Book Promotion, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion has named Tristi Pinkston Blog Host of the Month for the month of January!

Tristi Pinkston has been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006. She’s a stay-at-home mom, LDS historical fiction author of two published novels, and the mother of four (wife of one). She enjoys scrapbooking, watching good movies, and taking naps. She homeschools her children and takes a great deal of joy in watching them learn. When she’s not compulsively checking her e-mail or hiding her laundry in weird places so she doesn’t have to fold it, she enjoys trying new recipies that no one will eat. She also owns her own business making bath salts, lip gloss and lotion.

Visit her blog at Families.com at http://members.families.com/tristipie/blog.   

Thank you for this interview, Tristi, and congratulations on Pump Up’s Blog Host of the Month!

Thank you for having me.

You write for Families.com, a phenomenal blog. Can you tell us what role you have there?

I blog in three different categories — LDS, Movie Reviews, and Media Reviews. These three areas are right up my alley as I feel passionately about all of them, and I’m able to put a lot of myself into every blog I write. I really couldn’t ask for a better job, especially as it allows me to stay home with my children.

What kind of hits would you say Families.com gets on any given day?

Doing a little conjecturing, I would say that the entire site gets around 35,000 hits a day — we have blog categories in everything from pregnancy and parenting to education and popular culture, so there’s a lot to read. We also have a third of a million members, which is really impressive. My blogs get around 1,000 hits a day.

What aspect of writing for Families.com do you enjoy the most?

As I mentioned, I really like staying at home and being able to workat the same time. Granted, sometimes it’s difficult to type when Legos are being shoved in your hands and little fingers are reaching in to hit the letter “A” while a little voice properly identifies it. I love encouraging people to read and helping them find worthwhile reading material. It’s also fun for me to meet new people, even if it is “just” online.

You review and interview authors. Can you tell us what your submission guidelines are?

The first and most important guideline is that the subject matter must be suitable for my readers. We are a family-oriented site, hence the name, and we don’t promote heavy violence or any form of erotica. This is fine with me — I wouldn’t want to read that either! I also try not to enter into debates with the authors I interview. If I discover that we have widely differing opinions on a certain topic, I’ll steer the conversation so there’s no danger of creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for either of us. Beyond that, I’m interested in fiction, nonfiction — you name it. The field is wide open. I do like to have a copy of the book so I can review it, but that’s not necessary for an author interview — it’s only necessary if you’d like a review for the book itself.

Do you write for any other websites or blogs?

I don’t write professionally for any other blogs — my contract with Families.com is exclusive. I am a published historical fiction author, so I do maintain a personal website as well as a personal blog which I use for promotional purposes, but my reviews are exclusive to Families.com.

What do you do in your off time?

Well, if I had some . . . I really enjoy reading. This is part of what makes the job so suited to me — I’m not reading because I have to, I’m reading because I love it. I also love watching good movies, taking naps, and scrapbooking. I own my own bath and beauty products company and some of my time is taken that way. But mostly I read and watch movies. That makes me sound like a real couch potato – but I’m so busy all the time that when I do have a minute, I’d better be doing something relaxing or you might as well just ship me off to the looney bin and wrap me up in a straight jacket. I’ll take a mauve one, please, or maybe a nice sage, to match my eyes . . .

Thank you for your interview, Tristi, and we’ll see you on the tour circuit!

Tags: book marketing, book promotion, online book promotion, virtual book tours, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, Tristi Pinkston, Families

FREE Book Promotional Opportunity

The Story Behind the Book has a new home!  I decided to move it from Blogger to WordPress and it is now located at www.thestorybehindthebook.wordpress.com. 

If you would like to tell your book’s backstory, visit that link and find out how!

Jim Melvin, author of THE DEATH WIZARD CHRONICLES, Coming Tomorrow!

I’m baaaaack.  Actually, the last week of the month and the first week of the month are the two worse weeks for me to blog because of so much going on with tours.  However, I see light at the end of the rainbow and I’m ready to jump back in with book marketing buzz to share.

I will be talking about virtual book tours here and there from my experience just in case any of you might be interested in that sort of thing to promote your books, but I want to introduce you to one of my clients, Jim Melvin, from Clemson, South Carolina.  I have traveled through South Carolina to get to Florida and I must say, that’s one beautiful state.  So, it’s no wonder it is home to many wonderful and gifted people, including my client who is coming up tomorrow to talk about how he is marketing his series, THE DEATH WIZARD CHRONICLES.

So, come on back tomorrow and you might pick up a hint or two from Jim.  Meanwhile, pump up that book and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Tags: Book Marketing Buzz, virtual book tour, Jim Melvin, The Death Wizard Chronicles

Happy Thanksgiving!