Entries from March 2008 ↓

If anyone can compete with Barack Obama for best public speaker it’s Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who has signed with Broadway Books to write his memoir.

Patrick, a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, became the first black governor of Massachusetts and the third black governor in the United States, when elected in November 2006. Prior to entering politics he worked in as an attorney and later in business.

More here.

Have you tried the new Borders bookstore website? It’s in beta (testing) now, but you can check out some of the sections.

You enter to what appears to be a bookshelf at a physical store and to the right you can click and look at various shelves (DVDs, books, music). This is sort of kin to selecting a general category at Amazon except you get a visual representation of the books listed, as if you were shopping at a physical store. Pretty cool, and I can imagine all sorts of ways this could be expanded in the future. Oprah is also front and center, with some exclusive video promoting her latest interest: Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth.

One of the most promising sections is Borders Media, where you can watch videos of authors discussing their books in various settings. For example—

Borders Book Club: authors discuss their books with small groups in a living-room-like setting. Currently viewable authors include Jodi Picoult, Lalita Tademy, Elizabeth Gilbert, Khaled Hosseini and others.

Borders Live at 01: one on one interviews with authors, recorded on location at Borders Store 01 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently up for viewing is Deepak Chopra discussing his newest book and other authors.

Borders Kitchen: where you can watch video of cookbook authors whipping up some of their recipes.

Borders Advice for Living: you can watch varied authors discussing their books, such as Robin Roberts, Donald Trump, and Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint. The theme for books featured here seems to be inspiration and motivation.

Many of the other sections—music, DVDs, kids—are not available yet but if they turn out to be as interactive as the media section, we could be in for a treat. Looks like Borders realizes that there’s something lacking in online shopping: other people. Not sure if this will ever replace getting out there and mingling, but Borders is obviously taking advantage of a lot of the newest bells and whistles available on the web to bring you a better online shopping experience.

They’re also trying to give Amazon some real competition. As much as I love Amazon, healthy competition is always a good thing.

Borders Beta

For more about innovation at Borders, see Borders Bookstore: Dinosaur Goes Digital

Photo credit: Pflorendo/iStockphoto

Annette Fix, former exotic dancer and now author, has penned her memoir, The Break-Up Diet, in which she talks about how she survived being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, when she thought she was going to live with him “happily- ever-after.” The Break-Up Diet is self-published, and Annette has devised some really creative ways to promote herself and her book, which she shares generously here.

Connie Briscoe: You seem to wear many caps: fiction and nonfiction author, spoken-word performer, publicist, senior editor for a popular website on writing, and last but certainly not least, a mom. How do you find the time and energy to do so much?

Annette Fix: I love everything about what I do. I think that makes a huge difference in my attitude when I wake up and start each new day. I just wish there were more hours in a day to do it all! I’m fortunate that my son is older now and very close to testing his wings. It was harder to juggle everything when I was working, home-schooling, and trying to carve out time to write. Although I seem to keep adding more on my to-do list!

CB: I understand that. There’s an interesting story behind your memoir The Break-Up Diet. Tell us what it is about and why you decided to write it.

Annette Fix: I was initially working on a feature film screenplay with a producer who had a picture deal with Disney. Then my live-in boyfriend dumped me off the back of the happily-ever-after horse. It turned me into a complete wreck, and I started journaling about the break-up. One of my girlfriends suggested I write it as a book. I backed out of the film project and began writing The Break-Up Diet. It started as therapy and I had no idea if it would end up being a 900-page diatribe of horrible relationship experiences, but it turned out to be my own real-life fairytale.

CB: You indicate that you found an agent but still struggled with landing a publisher. Why do you think that was?

Annette Fix: My agent was shopping my memoir as fiction because my voice and the content of the story are very “chick-litty.” The biggest problem was that the chick-lit market was saturated, and the editors didn’t feel my story was strong enough to compete. But I believe the actual strength of the story is that the happily-ever-after ending is true, and my message is that it really can happen.

CB: So you decided to publish The Break-Up Diet yourself and spent a year learning the ropes. Tell us a bit about that time.

Annette Fix: When I first considered self-publishing, I looked into a few of the major subsidy publishers such as Author House and iUniverse. But I ultimately decided their business model wasn’t right for me. So I established my own indie (independent) press and went step-by-step through the production process. It was a crash-course, and I made a lot of financial missteps along the way but I’m very happy with the final product. I think the best part of the process was being in the position to call my own shots about how the cover and interior would look, how it would be marketed, and so on.

CB: You’ve also been very creative as far as promoting the book with forums, blogs and other ideas. Tell us more about some of the things you’ve done to promote the book.

Annette Fix: I’ve tried to think of every possible way to incorporate marketing ideas I’ve read about. I wanted to find ways to create fun things on my site to connect with readers, some things that would also help promote the book.

I’m not quite finished implementing everything I have planned, but so far, on the book website for The Break-Up Diet, I’ve posted excerpts of the book, an audio clip of me reading from the book, a video welcome—which will soon be replaced by a hilarious book trailer—a blog—which I really should keep up more than I do—a MySpace page, and reading questions for book groups. I also created a forum called My Break-Up Story, where women can read and share—and have the last word telling their break-up and dating stories. I think that will really be a blast when more women find out about it.

I plan to create a fun, Cosmo-like “How do you know if you’re on the break-up diet?” quiz. And I’m currently working on a free down-loadable companion e-book that has tips and distractions to help women get over a tough break-up. I’ll be encouraging readers to pass it along to their friends who need it.

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A question on the minds of many fiction authors these days is: how graphic can or should you get when it comes to writing sex scenes?

I’m not talking about writing novels that are considered erotica or porn–that’s a whole other discussion. I’m talking when it comes to writing mainstream, commercial, pop, chick, sister-girl and women’s lit. Even bestselling mystery authors are getting more vivid when it comes to depicting sex scenes: check out mega bestseller Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb for some fairly hot sex scenes as an example.

No doubt readers these days are tolerant of–and sometimes expect–more graphic and frequent sex scenes in their novels, even readers who expect rich and deep plots and characters. This is a reflection of the popular culture in general. Books are competing with cable television, music, movies and video games, and gone are the days when hinting at what goes on between a couple under the sheets or after the lights go out is enough to set a reader to blushing. Toss those sheets aside, we say! Turn on all the lights!

But how much is too much? When and where should an author draw the line to avoid being labeled as porn? I think that is entirely up to the author and depends mainly on two things: (1) the story the author is telling and (2) what the author is comfortable with.

Readers these days are sophisticated enough to welcome a variety of writing styles when it comes to the sex—from well-written and engaging tales told with little or no sex to those with a few erotic sex scenes sprinkled throughout. As long as the sex fits the plot and characters and as long as the vulgarity is kept to a minimum, an author can safely stay within the confines of what is considered “mainstream” today.

And above all, the author should be at ease with whatever he or she writes. If not, readers will sense it. I remember when I wrote my first novel, Sisters and Lovers. The sex scenes back then were generally a lot more tepid than they often are now, and I decided I wasn’t going to write anything I wouldn’t want my Mama reading ’cause I wouldn’t have been comfortable with that. I’ve evolved since then—as has society—and in the sequel to Sisters and Lovers, which I’m working on now, the love scenes will be a bit steamier. Still, there is a line I won’t cross.

As to what is considered crossing the line, try not to get vulgar or gross (which according to the American Heritage Dictionary is defined as crude, offensive, unmitigated in any way). Admittedly what is considered gross can be subjective, and the dividing line is probably constantly shifting. However, I do think that an author can reach a point at which no doubt is left in the minds of most adults that what they’re reading is pure erotica or porn.

If as an author you’re still unsure, then my advice would be to read a mainstream novel that has a few steamy sex scenes in it and then read an erotica novel that has a plot (or not) woven around the sex. There is a difference. And if you want to stay on the safe side of mainstream, focus on writing a well-crafted novel that will leave the reader thinking that Rhonda finally came to her senses and kicked that no-good man to the curb rather than leave the reader remembering how fast and wide Rhonda spread her legs.

Photo credit: Aaltazar/iStockphoto

I’m kinda taking a break from the blog with the holidays and all. I’ll be back to posting regularly tomorrow (Tuesday), starting with some thoughts on writing sex scenes in mainstream (or pop or commercial) novels—should you or shouldn’t you? What’s too much or not enough? Yeah, I’m going there.

I’ll also have a guest interview with Annette Fix, an author who has penned her memoir, called The Breakup Diet. And what a life she’s lived—this woman has endured more hair-raising turns than a heroine in a bestselling thriller. She’s done everything from exotic dancing to surviving an attempted kidnapping and staring down the barrel of a gun.

Meanwhile, Happy Spring Break everyone!

You knew her as the feisty Druscilla Winters on CBS’s daytime series, “The Young and the Restless.” You may also remember when she co-starred in the CBS primetime television series “Diagnosis Murder” with Dick Van Dyke. You might even be aware that Victoria Rowell has been nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy and awarded several NAACP Image Awards.

What you may not know is that Rowell is the child of an unmarried white mother and a black father who left her to foster care as an infant. She subsequently landed in several foster care homes throughout the first 18 years of her life before going on to become a dancer, teacher, model, actress and bestselling author. It was as an actress that Victoria Rowell really began to shine, starring in theater, primetime, daytime and feature films, often opposite some of Hollywood’s most famous leading men, including Beau Bridges, Jim Carrey, Dick Van Dyke, Mario Van Peoples, Will Smith, Eddie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson.

In her memoir, The Women Who Raised Me, Rowell pays tribute to the women she calls her “personal champions,” the women who guided and nurtured her during those formative early years. Among them are a black Bostonian who lived on a rural farm in Maine, a Paris-trained prima ballerina, and a mother and teacher living in a well-kept middle-class suburban neighborhood.

The Women Who Raised Me was first published in the spring of 2007 to much acclaim, hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. The paperback is due to be released this coming May, at which time Victoria Rowell will join me here in an interview for Connie Briscoe Presents.

She has a fantastic website with lots of celeb photos and a guest book–Victoria Rowell on the web.

When Lee McDonald– director of marketing and events at Karibu Books–contacted me shortly after Karibu closed to let me know that she and Charlotte Reid (also of Karibu Books) would be taking on clients to help them with marketing, publicity, events and scheduling, I knew that I had to get the word out. If you’ve worked with Karibu, you know Lee McDonald and the excellent work she did for the bookstore and the many authors who appeared there over the years. No matter what the book market was doing, I could always count on a big crowd showing up–sometimes numbering in the hundreds–whenever I appeared for a book signing at Karibu. This woman knows her book marketing stuff.

For Connie Briscoe Presents, Lee shares what it takes to succeed in the book marketing and publicity business and what’s next for her after the closing of Karibu Books.

Connie Briscoe: How long did you work as director of marketing and events for Karibu?

Lee McDonald: I started Karibu in 2001. I dabbled in all areas of the business–sales, buying, warehouse, et cetera–and became the director of marketing and events sometime in 2002.

CB: Before we get into your new venture, can you tell us a bit about why Karibu closed?

Lee McDonald: Well, I don’t really want to speak on the behalf of either of the owners but I will say that there were differences in the vision and growth of Karibu, therefore the business suffered.

CB: Do you think it will ever reopen, and if so, when?

Lee McDonald: Connie, you know, that is a question I continually get! I do not know, but knowing the drive and passion that Karibu was built from, it would not surprise me to see a Karibu reappear in the future.

CB: Good. We’ve all got our fingers crossed. You handled book marketing and events for Karibu. For someone who might be interested in pursuing that kind of work, what kind of training and experience did you have?

Lee McDonald: Interestingly enough, my background is in hospitality/human resource and hotel management. With that said, I think if you have a background in selling, servicing and interacting with people that you can market and/or brand a product. The ability to effectively communicate with lots of people is very important. Many of the contacts you make will be about building relationships, so complete professionalism and timely follow up are also important. Lastly, of course, is results. You must have the numbers to compliment the relationships. I serviced approximately 600 events each year while working to market and brand Karibu as a household name, and with the help of the team we sold lots of books!

CB: Indeed you did. Tell us about this new venture you’re planning.

Lee McDonald: After the closure of Karibu, I started my own marketing and event consulting company, The Renaissance Group, LLC. My partner Charlotte Reid and I will service individuals and small business clients, including national and self-published authors. We will also service some of the literary events that are held each year. Currently, we are working with Harrine Freeman author of How to Get out of Debt, Dr. Leslie Browder, a life coach who is working on a new book, and Floyd Seymour a fitness expert who owns his own gym. And we’re working on programming for the Baltimore Book Festival 2008. We have some other pending clients and projects, so stay tuned for those. Lastly, we anticipate starting a newsletter, The Renaissance Review, very soon.

No it has nothing to do with sex, drugs or rhythm and blues. Rather, Squidoo is a website of the social kind, sort of like MySpace or Facebook–but more for grownups (heh!). Squidoo lets you create a website on a topic that you like or have knowledge about and it gives you all sorts of cool tools to do it with. You can use Squidoo to spread the word about something you love, or you can try to make money directly on the site by selling stuff related to what you post.

Use Squidoo to Market Your Books

Or . . . you can use Squidoo as a book marketing tool. I have a Squidoo page about getting published, and I mainly use that site to drive traffic to this site. This is another great use for Squidoo. You can use it as a marketing tool to attract new visitors to another website. All sorts of visitors are drawn into Squidoo by other sites, and the trick is to get them to check your Squidoo site.

So check out Squidoo and while you’re there take a look around at some of the other Squidoo lenses (a page in Squidoo is called a lens). You can start with the top 100 lenses or just explore randomly. There are some really cool and informative lenses there–there’s also some junk but you can avoid that. And if you’re looking to market your book site or something else, Squidoo can help drive traffic to your site. When I first started my lens it hit the top 100 and got a ton of traffic.

My Squidoo Lens

Move over Jane Marple, here comes Precious Ramotswe.

Grammy Award winning singer and actress Jill Scott will star in an upcoming HBO series based on Alexander McCall Smith’s best-selling series of mystery novels about a female-owned detective agency in Botswana. The title of both the mystery series and the fictional detective agency is The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Jill Scott plays Precious Ramotswe, and Akika Noni Rose of “Dreamgirls” will also star in the series, as Ramotswe’s quirky secretary.

I love a good mystery series and I especially like women detectives so I’m looking forward to this.

For more info. head over to Black Voices

This week, we continue the two part series about virtual book tours with Dorothy Thompson and Cheryl C. Malandrinos of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a company that sets up virtual book tours for authors. Part 1 of “All About Virtual Book Tours” appeared a few weeks ago and it was one of this sites most popular posts. And it’s no wonder. Pump Up Your Book Promotion has a client list that includes New York Times bestselling authors, self-published authors, screenwriters and others.

So here as promised, “All About Virtual Book Tours,” Part 2–

Connie Briscoe: How much traffic do the sites that you select for an author’s book tour normally get on average?

Dorothy Thompson: What we do when we approach a blogger is to make sure several things are in place. Is the blog updated frequently? If it is, there is a good chance they are established in the search engines. If I see a full set of archives dating back to 2005, that’s a plus. Understanding how blogs work in regards to the search engines helps me find the best stops I can for my clients.

Cheryl Malandrinos: There isn’t really an average amount of traffic because each tour is individualized to meet the needs of the client. At times, clients will suggest blogs that they want to have as part of their tours. These aren’t always the highest traveled blogs, but they might belong to a friend or be a perfect genre or topic match, so we use them. We always search for the best blogs to host our clients and have found many wonderful places for them to visit.

CB: What types of books seem to do best on a virtual book tour?

Cheryl Malandrinos: My client list has included authors from a variety of genres: science-fiction, paranormal romance, Christian fiction, time travel romance, young adult fiction, historical fiction, and memoir. I haven’t had a client come back to me and say, “I didn’t sell any books.” But from my client list the two that reported the most significant sales to me were time travel romance and historical fiction.

Dorothy Thompson: To be honest, the books that do better on virtual book tours are the ones that have 100% participation. In other words, the authors are putting themselves into the tour by promoting in all the venues they have, to coincide with all the venues we have. Together they become a powerful marketing campaign.

But I do want to mention something about subject matter. What I do when I start setting up a tour is look over the author’s application carefully. What’s the hook? What is it about this author that I can use to bring to everyone’s attention? While it might look like all we do is set up authors on blogs and websites, we’ve actually got a game plan for each author.

I have an author touring right now whose book is about Sept. 11 but not only is it fictional, it’s written from the terrorists’ point of view. The way I understand it is this author was turned down by New York publishers because of the subject material. I started reading the book and was amazed at not only the writing, but also how drawn I was into the book because I was seeing the “other side’s” point of view. I said, “That’s it. That’s my hook.”

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