Entries Tagged 'Book Promotion' ↓

In recognition of Black History Month, APOOO Book Club will shine a spotlight on 31 authors, one author each day from February 1 through March 2, on the APOOO Website, MySpace blog and other places. The spotlight will include an article written by the author on varied topics such as–

• Why Is Black History Important?
• Room at the Table (Is there room at the table for all African American authors no matter the genre?)
• Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (interracial dating)
• I’m the Head of the Household (coping when she makes more money)
• Help…I’ve Fallen and Don’t Want to Get Up (stepping out of corporate America and not looking back even when the going gets tough)
• ACTING White or Not Black Enough (When did being articulate, intelligent, and financially able become equated to being white?)
• Is the American Dream Real?
• Are We Ready? (for a black president)

First up, Angelia Menchan. And here’s the rest of the stellar lineup. OK, so I’m on there, but still this is a wonderfully eclectic list of authors. Should be exciting.

• Feb 1st: Angelia Menchan
• Feb 2nd: Ebony Farashuu
• Feb 3rd: Cheryl Robinson
• Feb 4th: LA Banks
• Feb 5th: LaConnie Taylor-Jones
• Feb 6th: Donna Hill
• Feb 7th: Bettye Griffin
• Feb 8th: Deatri King-Bey
• Feb 9th: Kimberly Brooks
• Feb 10th: Maryam Diaab
• Feb 11th: Vincent Alexandria
• Feb 12th: Gloria Mallette
• Feb 13th: Djuanna Brockington
• Feb 14th: Niambi Davis
• Feb 15th: Earl Sewell
• Feb 16th: Sheila Goss
• Feb 17th: Gwyneth Bolton
• Feb 18th: Tinisha Johnson
• Feb 19th: Tracy Price Thompson
• Feb 20th: Paula Chase
• Feb 21st: Francis Ray
• Feb 22nd: Angela Benson
• Feb 23rd: Felicia Pride
• Feb 24th: Desiree Day
• Feb 25th: Eric Pete
• Feb 26th: Jewel Parker Rhodes
• Feb 27th: Reshonda Tate Billingsley
• Feb 28th: Shelia Williams
• Feb 29th: DeBerry and Grant
• Mar 1st: Tananarive Due
• Mar 2nd: Connie Briscoe

Lately I’ve been into studying book video trailers with the thought of producing one or having one produced for my next novel. One thing I’ve come to realize is that lack of brevity leads to boredom. Most of them are too long. You should hit the viewer fast and hard and get out. Leave them wanting more. In the age of 30 second commercials, a two to three minute trailer is just too long.

Below is a video trailer for an upcoming book that I think is well done. It’s simple, to the point and best of all only a couple of secs over a minute long. It’s done professionally by a media company called Stonecreek Media Inc. They have other book trailers on their website and you’ll see that they’re generally brief. So if you’re producing these yourself, as a lot of self-published authors are–don’t get so thrilled with your talent as a producer that you overdo it.

I’m not promoting the novel. I haven’t read it, although it does look interesting. I’m merely pointing out what I think is a good book trailer for writers who are producing them or planning to. If you think you might want to check out the novel, it’s called When I’m With You. The author, LaConnie Taylor-Jones, will be touring virtually starting February 1.

LaConnie Taylor-Jones Virtual Book Tour - scroll down to read about the Taylor-Jones virtual book tour.

LaConnie Taylor Jones Web Site

Want to see more book trailers? Featured book trailers.

I love discovering good websites for authors and book lovers. I found Overbooked.org a few days ago while browsing–a favorite pastime of mine–and I’m still exploring it. Whenever I visit this quirky site I find a new little gem. It’s a cool website for authors and book lovers alike and features both fiction and nonfiction titles as well as old and new titles. It’s got special sections for Christian Fiction, Romance, African-American Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction and more.

One of the more interesting features for authors–although any book lover can get into this–is Author Connections, where you can list your own book titles with descriptions and post a link to your website or blog. I listed Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 (my latest book) and it worked like a charm. This section is shaping into an interesting database and you can even download it. Yep, for free. The database is small now but could be really cool as more people add to it. I haven’t tried to download yet so I can’t say how well that part works. If anyone does try it out, let us know how it goes.

At times, Overbooked seems a bit clunky and outdated, and the navigation can get downright confusing (part of its charm?). Some of the links don’t work properly–for example the link to the “form” that you reach from the Author Connections link in the left-hand menu. Fortunately there’s another way to reach Author Connections, which I posted below.

To its credit, Overbooked does say that the site is under development and that parts of it are experimental–and I gather that you–the visitor–are a part of the experiment. What will you like? What will you avoid like the plague? How will you use it all? To me, Overbooked is an example of both the beauty and the curse of the web. You get to help shape the content but you gotta put up with something a little less than polished–usable certainly but… well, experimental.

Fortunately, there are some really nice features that make it worth the time and a little frustration–such as the many interactive areas, one of which takes you to Yahoo Groups, where you can post comments about books, although most of the comments at present seem to be authors hawking their latest titles. Another interactive area is the Overbooked Wiki, where anyone can post book related info. Again, this is just getting started and few items are listed now but it looks interesting so get on over there and add to it if you’ve got something to share.

A third interactive area looks especially promising and is called a “social network” or “social site.” This is billed as “a new social space for the chronically overbooked” and seems like a place where you can create your own book related group and comment and add photos and videos. How rich is that? I’ll definitely be digging more deeply into this area as it appears to be rather well done.

Overbooked is a volunteer project run by a librarian and it shows. The site was obviously created by someone with a love of books, and it’s a fun site to browse. I’d get in on some of its features now while it’s still young and growing, especially if you’re an author.

Overbooked Main Page

Overbook Author Connections

Overbooked Social Site

Overbooked Wiki