Debra Gaskill's Blog, page 5

How I’m promoting my book.

One of the hardest things for self-published writers to do is get publicity, admittedly one of the things that traditional publishers do (or sometimes don’t do) for their writers.

But it’s not hard to do a little promotion. All it takes is a little planning!

Here’s my current schedule:

Aug. 14: Book Launch party at Stony Creek Roasters, Cedarville, Ohio

Aug. 22-25: Killer Nashville, Hutton Hotel Nashville, where I spoke bout small town settings for murder mysteries.

Aug. 27: Reading/book signing at Enon, Ohio Library.

Sept. 20: Southern Ohio Writer’s Group, Chillicothe

Sept. 21-22: Wool Gathering at Young’s Dairy

Oct. 8: Book signing/reading at the Sunbury Ohio Library

Oct. 13: The Knitter’s Connections, Middletown, Ohio

Oct. 18-19: Southern Indiana Fiber Festival, Corydon, Ind.

Oct. 26: Magna Cum Murder, Indianapolis

With some help from my friends, I was able to put together a great party, plus a string of successive appearances where I am able to sign books, meet people and generally, get my book in front of as many readers as possible.

I chose a date for launch party at a local small-town coffee shop, ordered a cake that looked like the cover of my book (so realistic, in fact, a friend tried to pick it up!) and bought a great sandwich board sign to set on the sidewalk outside proclaiming the event.

But before the August 14 launch, I laid the groundwork for the event: I started with a Facebook page for my book, where I announced the event and invited the general public to the event (not to mention everyone of my FB friends within a 50 miles radius).

I also engaged the local media with a press release that included a headshot and the cover of my book.

I announced the launch on Twitter, multiple times and invited my Twitter followers to a chat on the book the night before on the Facebook page.  Now, I don’t pretend to be self-publishing phenom Amanda Hocking, but while there were just a few folks chatting the night before, there were more than 100 people who “stopped by” in a virtual sense to get a look at what we were doing.

I call that a success!

The launch party itself was small, with friends and family stopping by, along with some nice college students.  I sold enough books to pay for the two carafes of coffee and the cake—not a bad trade!

From there, I was off to Killer Nashville, where I spoke on a panel about small town settings for mysteries. Admittedly, I didn’t sell any books there, but I made a lot of contacts, developed several new Twitter followers and saw a bounce in e-book and hardcover sales once I returned home. Once again, it was a small success on the road to building readers.

An evening reading and book sale at my local Enon Library followed my return from Nashville. This admittedly was an odd event to schedule, with librarian balking at the idea originally because “they’d never done anything like that before.” Once I got her convinced (and donated not only eBook copies, but hardback copies as well), we were on our way. The turnout was again small, but sales went well—more steps on the road to building readers.

In the next several weeks, I have several diverse events: a writer’s group in Chillicothe, the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, and another library reading.

Why would I take my books to an event that seems to clearly be non-mystery related? Here’s why: One of my many hobbies is raising llamas and alpacas and spinning their wool into yarn. I often find that knitters, weavers and spinners will pick up my books at these events, so I’m including them on my tour. (I’ve also named several characters for weaving patterns and weavers have fun picking that out.)

Before those events, I will probably follow the same formula: Tweet about the event starting a week or so beforehand, and invite folks to a pre-event Facebook chat.  For solo events, I’ll send a press release to the local media just so they know what I’m up to.

(These days, when it’s tough going for newspaper editors, a well-written press release that requires little or no editing can often be run as it stands on inside pages. But don’t beleaguer your local editor— he or she will stop running press releases that only contain blatant self-promotion. For that, you need to buy an ad, and print advertising for local authors usually doesn’t result in readers.)

Even when I’m not actively promoting, one of the things I always do is have copies of my books with me. You never know where you’re going to sell a copy— I sold books at a Michigan llama show this weekend!

Can’t get out and promote?

Engage readers on social media, such as Twitter, Goodreads and Facebook or blogs.  Hold virtual chats on your books Facebook page or talk to your local book clubs via Skype (or Facetime, if you have a Mac).  Offer to post on other writer’s blogs—and if you have your own blog, keep updating the entries on a regular basis for at least six months to a year. It’s going to take folks time to find you, after all!

Happy writing!

Find my latest mystery, LETHAL LITTLE LIES, on Amazon.com and Kobo and on my web site, http://www.debragaskillnovels.com.

Thanks for everything!

Have been here in about a week—it’s been a little crazy, but it’s one of those weeks when I need to stop and simply give thanks: for friends, for family, for those that read my little stories and for all of those who have touched my life lately. I’m glad you’re here.

On Monday, I began the dead run toward the book launch of my latest novel, LETHAL LITTLE LIES. There was a cake to pick up, swag to purchase and assemble and, oh God, tell me I didn’t forget to order copies!

Between my job— a city council meeting over a contentious federal order, a pretrial for a young man who kidnapped two people and got into a shootout with Xenia police, a neighborhood complaint about the use of a public park and a fun story about public knitted art (commonly known as ‘yarn bombing’)—I was also enjoying the homecoming of my daughter Becky from an internship in Washington D.C., and a delightful overnight visit with mygrandson, Louie, it wasn’t uncommon for me to be running on empty.

(And did I mention that the two weeks prior to that I was adding jury duty to the mix? Lucky for me, I only got called in for one day and the defendant was stupid enough to not show up, so I got off easy. )

The book launch was delightful. Friends and family, in a warm and delightful small town coffee shop surrounded me. Friends who couldn’t be there sent flowers. It seemed almost secondary that they wanted to actually buy my books.

For the next several weeks, I’m on a promotional tear.

On Wednesday, I’m headed to Killer Nashville, where I will speak about creating small town settings for murder mysteries.

I’ll be back sometime Sunday or early Monday (and back to the hectic world of freelance journalism). Lucky for me, the trial of a sex offender has been rescheduled until later in the month.

On Tuesday, I speak at my hometown library about LETHAL LITTLE LIES and then Friday, head up to East Lansing for my favorite llama show of the year, Llamafest, at Michigan State University.

Another event at the Sunbury Public Library is also scheduled for sometime in October, along with a visit to Indianapolis and Magna Cum Murder.

The reviews continue to be enthusiastic and for that I am grateful.

I am truly the luckiest woman in the world.

Once again, thank you for everything.

Congratulations to the winners

Thank you to the 462 folks who entered my giveaway on Goodreads and congratulations to the five winners of their own copies of LETHAL LITTLE LIES. Copies will be mailed on Monday!

Book launch coming soon!

Just a reminder, I’m launching my book LETHAL LITTLE LIES next Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at Stoney Roasters Coffe Shop, 85 N. Main St., Cedarville. Love to see you there!

Another positive review

Another positive review for LETHAL LITTLE LIES: “f you love a good mystery too, this book’s for you. Full of twists and turns that I didn’t always see coming. Good character development and loved the central Ohio references (Harmony Motel.) Thoughtful description of the current and future picture of the print newspaper…Makes me want to pick up the author’s other books in the Jubilant Falls Series.”

Thank you so much for your positive words!

Trusting the story

I have been struggling with the latest novel this week, mainly over the structure of a critical scene where a character—a good, but flawed one—is murdered.

I originally thought I knew how the scene would be structured: The character, a U.S. Marshal shielding a woman in Witness Protection, would be killed. Originally, I wanted readers to think his killer was a white supremacist the agent, an African American man, tangled with earlier in the book.

I thought I wanted the body to be dumped into a hog pen. For those of you who know anything about hogs (and murder mysteries), they are a great way to get rid of a body because they’ll eat just about anything…

The only thing left was to be a skull and a badge.

I was so intent on this idea that one evening after a meeting of my knitting group, the Ladies Fiber and Firearms Society, I cornered my friend Lori’s husband, who manages a hog farm, and harassed him into a conversation on how this could possibly occur while my own husband sighed heavily in the background.

I’m known for starting these uncomfortable conversations.

A nurse friend set me up on a phone conversation with a trauma surgeon for my last book. I asked him how much damage could be done with a small caliber handgun to the liver and spleen and how much time would be spent in the hospital.

I had to repeatedly assure the good doctor that this was fiction, not a crime I was planning.

On another occasion, I was supposed to attend a fiber group event.

“Oh, I can’t come!” I explained. “I’m meeting a blood spatter expert. I’m supposed to bring my own watermelon and baseball bat.”

Back to my struggles on killing off a character…

Constructing the scene became an obsession. I talked about it interminably: How should he die? How should the woman he’s protecting escape? Friends teased me that I was so obsessed that I would be pulled over on the highway for speeding so engrossed in this scene that it would really get me into trouble.

“Ma’am, are you aware of how fast you were driving?”

“No, I’m sorry, officer. I was thinking about how to kill off a federal agent.”

Yeah. That would end well.

Finally on Thursday, a friend and editor of mine, Mary McFarland, gave me the best advice: Just write it. Let the story take you where IT, not you, needs to go.

And so, the scene began to unfold, and by Saturday night, I had it written.

And you know what? There was nary a white supremacist in sight: The story took a sharp left turn that I think will actually make it better in the long run. I’ve gone back and done a few polishes here and there, but generally, I’m pleased with how it turned out, despite the change in direction.

The lesson I’ve learned is this: I’ve built these characters to be (largely) living, breathing people, although only on paper. I have to trust their choices sometimes and let the novel go where it needs to go.

And all I need to do is follow.

My latest book, Lethal Little Lies, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. See the free preview on Amazon.com.

Free preview available on Amazon

There’s a free preview of Letha Little Lies now available on Amazon: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1128707

More positive reviews for Lethal Little Lies

I recently opened up the Amazon page for my latest book, Lethal Little Lies and saw the following reviews. You don’t know how much this means to me!

From Mary H. Crockett:

Great summertime read! I picked up this book with low expectations — local midwest Ohio writer and all – but then I found myself totally engrossed in this tightly written, pithy little book that mixed small town politics with big-town stakes (and MURDER!), missing identities, gambling, politics, a core love relationship complete with spicy potential infidelity, families — stalkers… By the second page I was totally gripped and just enjoyed every minute of this pleasurable (yet very human) mystery. In addition to the lovely plot twists and turns, there is a love-story at the core that unfolds nicely. A beautifully written and accurate portrayal of the sad loss of professional journalism as little papers (some with top-notch reporters and editors) get gobbled up by syndicates in the “walmartization” of the news. I loved the editor’s personality – she was tempted to “sell out” in PR, but totally bitten by the bug of journalism. (Perhaps autobiographical?) Loved her! Loved all the main characters… When does it go on Audibles I’m wondering? … You will not be disappointed with this well-written,fun read!

And from MarMar:

just finished the following book that was written by Debra Kern Gaskill . It is amazing! I had such a hard putting it down to get my work done. The twists and turns in this novel kept me glued to my nook! All you Nook and Kindle readers you need to download this Murder/Mystery Chiller!!

Talk to me!

In advance of the Aug. 14 book launch, I am seeking folks who will write reviews for Lethal Little Lies on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Goodreads in exchange for a FREE copy of the eBook. (Don’t have an e-reader? We’ll talk!)  Please contact me if you’re interested!

Link to my author page on Goodreads! Let’s get to know o...

Link to my author page on Goodreads! Let’s get to know one another!