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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I haven’t taken the self-publishing plunge–yet! But it’s an exciting idea, likely one with very many pros and cons. One of the biggest pros that I can think of is having more control over all the major steps involved in getting a book to print. I can also imagine that all of that control (with less help from others) translates into some major cons. Still, more and more people are going this route, and it’s revolutionized the publishing biz.

Other folks know more about this hot topic than I do (and we know it’s hot because even Borders Bookstore is getting in on the act), like Kimberly Dawn Wells, who has used both Lulu and iUniverse to get her books out there and has written lots of articles on self-publishing. Kimberly also writes for Suite 101.com and she seems to offer some well-thought out advice based on personal experience–the best kind. She covers a lot of ground on her Squidoo page–from binding your book to avoiding publishing scams. Her page is one of the first places I would look for information if I planned to self-publish a book.

Self-Publishing for Writers by Kimberly Dawn Wells

Photo credit: Palto/iStockphoto

Cheryl Robinson tells us how she went from self-publishing her first two novels to landing book deals with New York publishing houses. She also discusses why she decided to try virtual book touring for her latest title, Sweet Georgia Brown.

Connie Briscoe: You started out as a self-published author. Why was that? Did you try to find an agent or traditional publisher first? Tell us about those early years.

Cheryl Robinson: It took years before I decided to put my first novel to paper. I made a conscious decision when I started writing that I would self-publish because I had heard the horror stories on finding an agent or publishing company. I had also tried in the past to obtain an agent and I did receive my fair share of rejection letters, which discouraged me from pursuing my passion for several years.

So when I did finally sat down in front of my computer and decided to write my first novel, which was Memories of Yesterday, my thought process was that I would publish my first novel myself, and I felt very confident that I would gain the attention of publishers from that point.

CB: How did you finally land a literary agent?

Cheryl Robinson: I self-published Memories of Yesterday and sent it off to Earl Cox in New York who owned a small press and also provided consulting for authors. I was hoping that with his assistance I could take my novel to the next level. He wasn’t interested in my first book so the following year I self-published another novel, When I Get Free. I went all out with my promotional material–with a full-color press kit folder, a catchy title and a nice tagline.

I went back to Earl Cox and this time he was very interested. He received my novel on a day when he was flying to Los Angeles to meet with a literary agent about another one of his clients and he took my book with him, read it, and loved it. He passed my book on to the agent who also loved it. Within 30 days from that point, I had a literary agent.

CB: How is it different working with an agent?

Cheryl Robinson: The agent is the go between you and the publisher. Even if you have been working with the same editor for a while, the proper protocol is to have your agent pitch your next book deal and of course negotiate the contract. The right agent can make or break your career, I believe. They are very important and they must believe in you as a writer and in your work in order to work out the best possible deal for you.

CB: You are currently on a virtual book tour. Is this your first one and how is it going?

Cheryl Robinson: It is my first one and I am having a lot of fun.

CB: Why did you decide to go on a virtual book tour?

Cheryl Robinson: I needed to save money. I was spending thousands of dollars on marketing my novels, and travel was an enormous expense for me. I also needed to save time and find a smarter way to market my titles. For me, I think the virtual book tour is the best way for now.

CB: So you liked the idea of going on a book tour without ever having to leave home. When and where do you write?

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You all know I love bookstores, right? No? OK, then I looooove bookstores. I can just hang out in one for a couple of hours, easy.

One of my biggest concerns has been that mortar and brick bookstores are going the way of the dinosaur once devices like the Amazon Kindle come down in price to around $50 - $100 or so, and the creators decide to make their money selling books rather than on the device. Remember record stores? Yeah, that’s what I thought was going to happen to bookstores. Not tomorrow or the next day, mind you. But within another 10 or so years.

Now there’s hope that I was entirely wrong. And this is one of those times when I’m glad to be wrong. But not for the reasons you may think. The reason is the new Borders concept stores due to debut during grand opening festivities on February 22 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the company’s hometown. According to Borders, it’s a 28,900-square-foot concept store–the first of 14 the company expects to open nationwide this year–and represents a big enhancement over existing Borders stores inside and out.

“This is a completely new shopping experience that sets Borders apart from every other store,” said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer George Jones. “We’ve stayed true to what our customers have always loved about Borders-deep and intelligent selection, knowledgeable staff, and a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere. Yet, we’ve brought a fresh new look and an exciting interactive dimension to the store with a Digital Center where customers can do everything from mix and make their own custom CDs, download books and music, publish their own books, explore their family history, and create photo books-all without being computer experts because we have trained people there to help every step of the way.”

The Digital Center sounds mad cool. Self-publish your own books? Create photo books? Sounds to me like Borders is saying, hey, don’t write us off so fast. We get it! You want digital. You want interactivity. You want control. Well, we got it!

Check out the video of what’s happening inside the new Borders bookstore. It’s so unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a bookstore. All I can say is, Borders please hurry and open one near me.

Borders Unveils First Concept Store