Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 249
August 4, 2014
Book Tours: Guest Post for Ripples in Opperman’s Pond
Title:Ripples in Opperman’s Pond
Author: Doug Zipes
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 288
Genre: Thriller
Format: Ebook
Purchase at AMAZON
Identical twins Dorian and Daniel Sloane grow up inseparable, sharing the same tubes of toothpaste as children and their lives as adults. Loyalty proven many times, they have been saving each other since the day Dorian rescued Daniel from drowning in Opperman’s Pond. Now, with Dorian as head of a multinational pharmaceutical company and Daniel as an innovative cardiolo...
Book Review: A Beautiful Madness by Lee Thompson
Title: A Beautiful Madness
Author: Lee Thompson
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
A Texas Senator and his wife go missing… On the same day, their son is slaughtered by an enigmatic killer on the lawn of ex-Governor Edward Wood’s residence. Sammy, Wood’s drug dealing son, suspects his father of the crime. After all, his old man snapped once before and crippled his wife with a lead pipe. But...
Book Review: Every Inferno by Johanna Parkhurst
Title: Every Inferno
Author: Johanna Parkhurst
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, LGBTQ
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Depressed. Defiant. Possible alcoholic. These are just a fewof theterms used to describe fifteen-year-old Jacob Jasper Jones. Lately, though, JJ has a new one to add to the list: detective. He’s been having strange dreams about the fire that killed his parents ten years ago, and...
August 3, 2014
Release Day Party Rouse Me
About the Book
Alyssa Summers is not the kind of girl who cheats. Sure, she’s prone to over-indulgence. She spent years spiraling out of control before she checked herself into an eating disorder clinic. But she’s under control now. She spends her days locked in the prison of her apartment, waiting for permission from her fiancé, Ryan, to resume her acting career.
And then she meets Ryan’s business partner, Luke Lawrence. Tall, handsome, and disarmingly direct, Luke is the perfect temptation. T...
Book Tours: Book Spotlight Identity Crisis
Title:Identity Crisis
Genre:Detective
Author: Jean Hackensmith
Publisher: Inkwater Press
Language: English
Pages:260
When rumors of how Dan Hamilton actually died reach the Cheyenne Chief of Police, Brian Koski is forced to resign his position as captain of the Sixth Precinct and go into business for himself as a private detective. His partner? A mahogany colored Belgian Malinois named Sinbad. A former NYPD police dog, Sinbad is vicious when need be and reliable to a fault–unless a train goes by or...
Book Review: Skin Deep by DP Denman
Title: Skin Deep
Author: DP Denman
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Liam Newman escaped an abusive past to start a new life with Justin, the man of his dreams. Unfortunately, the old life refuses to stay buried. When a fan of his porn star persona appears, he’s forced to reinvent himself in a surprising new career. Will it give him the new start he craves or lead him deeper into the life he’s trying to leave behind?
Skin Deep is the second book in a s...
Haunted Dolls: Annabelle, a creepy Raggedy Ann Doll
For those of you who’ve seen “The Conjuring”, Annabelle looks nothing like the creepy porcelain doll they used in the movie. The real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll, and doesn’t even look creepy. As the story goes, a woman was browsing through an antique shop, looking for a birthday present for her daughter Donna. The latter brought the doll into the apartment she shared with another student, Angie. Both were studying at nursing school, and about to graduate. Why Donna’s Mom decide to buy her grown-up daughter a doll for her birthday, remains one of the biggest mysterious about this case.
Anyway, as soon as the doll was in the house, trouble started up. Donna would come back home and notice the doll had slightly changed positions. At first, the girls thought they were imagining things, or they looked for logical solutions. But as the doll’s behavior became more erratic, they both grew scared of the doll. Sometimes the doll would even be in a completely different room than where they left her. The girls confided in a male friend of theirs, who the Warrens refer to as “Lou” in their account of the events.
A while later, notes started appearing all around the apartment. Words like “HELP” or “HELP LOU” were written on them, and the handwriting was child-like. On top of that, the notes were written in pencil, but there was not one pencil in the entire apartment. Apparently Annabelle had her own secret pencil stash.
Like that wasn’t enough evidence, the girls started laying traps around their house, but the doll didn’t fall for any of that. Even though it still moved around, it carefully avoided the girls’ traps. However, instead of kicking the doll out like any sane person would do if their doll suddenly start moving on its own, they waited until the doll stated oozing blood from its hand and chest until they got truly alarmed.
Instead of tossing the doll out, they decided the bleeding-incident was sufficient to call upon a medium, who promptly visited and decided to make things even worse. According to the medium, the doll was possessed by the spirit of a girl named Annabelle Higgins. She was a seven-year-old girl who died on the property long before it was build. Annabelle’s spirit had connected to the doll when they brought her into the apartment. Then the medium continued to ask the girls if Annabelle could stay with them, and permanently move into the doll.
The girls said yes.
Bad move. This is the moment in any horror movie where any self-respecting protagonist should say “no” and get the heck out of there, but for some reason, never does. As you can guess, things went from bad to worse, to nightmare.
Find out how the story ends here: http://majankaverstraete.com/2014/08/...
Marketing Tip: Start with a Marketing Plan
Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. Marketing is tough. It’s a grind. You have to be at it daily, you have to find your niche, your fanbase, and then you have to find some way to expand that. Creativity, originality and resourcefulness is key.
That’s why you need a marketing plan. A marketing plan is your life line. Ideally, you get started on it months before your first book releases, but we don’t all live in an ideal word. Even if your book has been out for months, or years, it’s not too late to get started on your marketing plan.
Open up an empty MS Word document (or whatever you prefer), and let’s start brainstorming. There are some key elements every marketing plan needs, and we’re going to describe them here in detail.
1. Description of your book
Start with a small description of your book. Think about what you are promoting, what genre/market you will promote it to, and what makes your book stand out from the crowd. If possible, add in an elevator pitch as well. Think of an elevator pitch as a 10-second pitch you’d use to describe your book if someone asked about it in line for Starbucks. It needs to be short, precise, and to the point.
I’ll give you an example for my book, “The Doll Maker”.
The Doll Maker is a scary lower grade chapter book aimed at both boys and girls, that can be read as a stand-alone and focuses on young protagonists who do not back down in the face of danger.
Elevator Pitch: A doll shop opens in town, and Derek’s sister wants one of their dolls. However, the doll has strange powers, and Derek grows convinced it’s alive. Is there a tie-in to the mysterious dissapearances in town?
In the first part, the description, I focused on:
What I am promoting: The Doll Maker
Genre: scary lower grade chapter book
Market: boys and girls, lower graders, who enjoy scary books
What makes the book stand out: can be read as a stand-alone, focuses on young protagonists who do not back down in the face of danger
My elevator pitch focuses more on the story and content. This is what I want to tell potential readers. The description is what is important for me. Keep your elevator pitch under fifty words, and two-three sentences (preferably).
2. Define Your Target Market
Describe your ideal reader. What are their interests? Who are they influenced by? Where do they spend their time online and offline?
Even though you might consider your book to be a ‘must’ for everyone, you need to narrow your focus. Find your core target audience. For instance, my target audience would obviously be children. But adults may read my books as well – maybe when they’re reading it to their children, or their cousins, grandchildren, etc.
Target Market: The ideal reader for The Doll Maker would be 7-11 years old, and have an interest in scary books and horror. He/She is not easily afraid. The book is aimed at both boys and girls.
Next, describe how you plan to reach your target market. For me, since my target market are children, and they aren’t often online, or if they are, they do not have money to purchase books, I need to reach the parents first.
Parents: I need to target parents who enjoy scary reads themselves, and who want to share their passion with their kids. They need to have kids age 7-11.
Reach target market: Write blog posts aimed at parents (about topics that tie in with the books). For The Doll Maker, write posts about famous haunted dolls, movies featuring haunted dolls, haunted dolls in literature, etc.
Read the rest of the post here: http://majankaverstraete.com/2014/08/...
August 2, 2014
Book Tours: Starter Day Party for Denim & Diamonds
I’m hosting the starter day party today for the book tour for romance / women’s fiction “Denim & Diamonds”. The tour runs from August 3rd to August 10th, and I’ll be reviewing the book on August 5. Stay tuned for the review, and meanwhile, visit the other tour stops.
Tour Schedule
August 3rd: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading
August 3rd: Promo and Excerpt @ Underneath The Covers
August 4th: Promo @ 100 Pages A Day
August 5th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading
August 7th: Promo and Excerpt @ Sunshine...
Mini-Review: Safe House, Dearly Beloved, League of Strays
Time for some mini-reviews! What are mini-reviews, you ask? As the title suggests, these are short reviews, consisting of one paragraph tops, about a book. It’s a way to catch up on the books I’ve read a while ago, but never got around to reviewing.
Safe House
Title: Safe House
Author: Chris Ewan
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
A brilliant thriller from the author of the acclaimed Good Thief’s Guide series asks, how can a beautiful woman simply vanish?
When Rob Hale w...
