Connie Johnson Hambley's Blog, page 26

Book Signing: Newton, Massachusetts

With the event only a few days away, I wanted to remind you to stop by for a visit! 


Please join me on Saturday, September 20 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST  for an author meet and greet. I'll be signing copies of The Charity and will talk about its upcoming sequel, The Troubles.

If you've never been to New England Mobile Book Fair, you need to get off your arse and go! For over 52 years, NEMBF has provided New Englanders with the best book selection and prices. They hold frequent events for readers to meet authors and are sure to have your sought after book in stock or will get it for you ASAP. They are located at 82-84 Needham Street in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts.

See you there!

P.S. - You can wish me a Happy Birthday, too!

It's Nice to be Rewarded for Being Yourself

If you've followed me a little bit, you'll know I'm a horse lover without a horse. I grew up riding and training six of my own, and life's zigs haven't zagged back to a place where I can have another...yet. But my love and passion haven't diminished. They've simply taken another form. Certainly my books revolve around the horse world, but in my real life, I get my horse fix by volunteering at a therapeutic riding stable as a horse handler.

There is a special connection between horses and humans that many writers (and riders) have tried to explain. I won't bore you with my reasoning, but the act of caring for and riding a horse can have a profound impact on a person's physical and emotional health. For someone who may be physically challenged or wheelchair bound, the action of riding a horse closely approximates the movement of able-bodied walking thereby strengthening core muscles and improving posture, mobility and comfort. I've worked with women with Down's Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy and have seen them challenged and grow through their connection to a horse. I've watched as women recovering from the ravages of human trafficking rediscover and reclaim their personal power and worth as they command a huge and powerful animal. I've been privileged to witness the dignity bestowed on someone who can, for a few moments inside a riding ring, be independent and autonomous astride a gentle giant.

My role in all of this is very small. I get the horses ready for the clients and either lead or closely monitor the horses while the clients work very hard on a spectrum of skills and challenges. There is a team of trained instructors, sidewalkers, occupational and physical therapists and more orchestrating the training. I take a back seat to the heavy lifting and get to brush, tack and schmooze with the horses to my heart's content. I love it, and the folks at Windrush Farm have done an amazing job of creating a loving, supportive and fun atmosphere for horse, rider and helpers. I know I'm echoing a sentiment of many of Windrush's volunteers when I say that my hours there are the highlight of my week.

Long before I knew of Windrush, I created a character in The Charity with special needs. It really wasn't that big of a stretch to want to donate proceeds of the sale of my book at certain events to them. On a few afternoons this summer, I attended horse trials, Grand Prix events and other shows, set up my table and sold books to benefit scholarship and other programs at Windrush. This was not combat duty. I sat ringside and saw some of the nation's top riders compete and watched some of the most heartfelt homegrown moments unfold. I was in heaven. Horses and books? Just fine by me.

So it was with great surprise that I learned that Windrush tipped their hat to me with the acknowledgement noted above. I was just doing what I love doing. I'm tickled someone noticed, but a little embarrassed, too.

But I guess the motivation to volunteer is a lot like the spark to write. It's not what others give to you that is the reward. It's the act itself that is reward enough.

If you buy a signed copy of my book through the link on blog, mention Windrush and I'll make another donation to them.
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Groton Horse Trial signing courtesy of the Equestrian Shop
The Equestrian Shop held a signing for me at Silver Oaks in Halifax
Vermont Summer Fest ringside signing was one highlight of my summer. Massachusetts Hunter Jumper Finals saw some up and coming talent.

September SinC-Up with Sisters in Crime Bloghop

Blogging is an odd beast. A writer sits alone at a keyboard and writes for no one in particular and everyone at the same time. After enjoying a career in Business Development and Marketing (meaning I connected with lots of folks on a daily basis to impart a targeted message), the solitary aspect of fiction writing and blogging has had its surreal moments. I no longer find it strange to talk out loud to myself, and the hand gestures and facial expressions are part of my new normal. Although, my husband may beg to differ.
So, when the Sisters in Crime suggested a September SinC-Up for its blogging members, I jumped at the chance. All that is required of me is to impart some words of wisdom and introduce you to another author or two. Perfect!
SinC Q: If you were to mentor a new writer, what would you tell her about the writing business? CJH: I had to start with the most important question first. It's key that the question asked for a mentor position rather than "one piece of advice" for a new writer. I may have had another professional life, but as a writer I'm the new girl in town. Writing is hard on several levels. It's hard be disciplined to write every day. It's hard to break through writer's block. It's hard to stay true to your voice and be fresh. It's hard to take criticism and grow from it, and not let it squelch you. Then, once a book is out, your work is just beginning. Today's industry requires you to initiate reader contact by putting yourself out there in any number of ways. Being successful is not a sprint, but a well-paced marathon. Where one piece of advice would be to be relentless and not give up on any front, a mentoring position requires identifying the key essence of a new writer's brand and personal goals for writing. Then the fun becomes figuring out the steps to get there, both strategically and efficiently. Blog. Say "yes" to every opportunity and create your own to talk about your work. Network. Listen. Write. Tweet. Speak. Like. Pin. But don't lurk. That's too creepy.
SinC Q: Which authors have inspired you?CJH: To be a good writer, you have to be a voracious reader. Stieg Larsson, Gillian Flynn, Tom Wolfe, John Grisham and Stephen King are among my favorites. They each carve interesting characters with a unique voice and are masters of their craft. Jodi Piccoult weaves compelling stories. 
SinC Q: If someone said, "Nothing against women writers, but all of my favorite crime fiction authors happen to be men," how would you respond?CJH: I'd hand them an armload of Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French and tell them to get lost.
SinC Q: What's the best part of the writing process for you? What's the most challenging?I LOVE creating characters and worlds. I love figuring out their motivations and quirks, and breeding in fatal flaws. Writing a good thriller is like playing a game of chess with my characters. I love writing to a very smart reader to see if I can be true to them while keeping them guessing and enthralled. The most challenging piece is finding fresh ways to find readers and engage their interest. 
SinC Q: What books are on your nightstand now?CJH: "There Was an Old Woman: A Novel of Suspense" by Hallie Ephron
The fun part about a blog hop is to introduce you to other authors. First is Laurie Bain Wilson. Laurie's writing has taken her to the ends of the earth and back as the travel editor for Bridal Magazine and blogger and travel writer for CNN and the Boston Globe. Her blog on The Big Apple is here and Travel Flavors blog is here.
Next up is Dale T. Phillips. Dale is a fellow Sisters in Crime member (yes, even guys can be Sisters). He writes novels and poetry, and his short stories have appeared in Level Best Books Crime Story anthologies. His has a website, and his blog is worthy of a frequent perusal as he is very active in author and book events.

A2R Marketing: Author Events-What Kind and What to Expect

It's never a bad time when you are out and about meeting readers and other writers. Different events allow for different types of interactions. If you're new to the Book Push thing, take a look below to see what you might expect.


Public Library Author Events:
Many public libraries have thriving patron outreach and community event programs. As part of their social contract with their communities, the acceptance of tax dollars for support means they will provide free events in return. Sometimes it's a structured event where the authors give a brief talk on a specific topic or their current work to a seated audience. Other times the authors have tables set up where the readers are encouraged to peruse books and have one-on-one time with each author. The public is welcome to stop by, chat and purchase a book or two. Both types of programs are terrific for readers and writers to meet one another and share stories. These events draw a larger crowd since the libraries provide some promotion and advertising, and each invited author will help with the promotion through their own marketing efforts. 
Public libraries are often welcoming to the individual author who would like to have a solo reading event. This is a great idea for someone looking to launch a book and need to get their feet wet with some experience before pushing out into a bigger venue like book stores and expos.
Book Stores:
Book stores, especially independent ones, are often quite happy to host an author event. Many are a thriving center of their community's cultural scene and are a hub for information and promotion. These can be a win/win situation. The author gets exposure to readers and the store enjoys an increase in traffic. For the stores, more people means more chances for sales. 
Like libraries, the event can be a formal night with a reading and talk by the author or it can be as simple as setting up a table with a stack of books on a Saturday afternoon. The store may have a preference when hosting a new author as to what night they will schedule. An author with a known following with several books out will most likely get a Thursday or Friday night, bigger crowd drawing dates. A newer or less experienced author will get a day earlier in the week to help draw shoppers out on less trafficked days, like a Monday or Tuesday. Saturdays are a gamble, but the store will know their market and any potentially competing events that could draw shoppers away. 
Also, the store may host panels where they feature a specific genre, like a mystery night, and have several authors speak. These usually draw bigger crowds for the store and they are great for an author looking to increase their visibility. Smaller stores will take copies of your book on consignment and will pay a standard percentage when they sell. 
I LOVE my local Jabberwocky Books and have a secret crush on the New England Mobile Book Fair, where I'll have a Saturday meet-n-greet in September.
Larger stores are more stringent with their events. I know of one regional chain that requests a fee upfront in order to get shelf space and an author night. Larger chains just want to make sure they can purchase your books through their regular channels for inventory control and may not have a procedure for consignment. Having a title that is considered "returnable" is appealing as they know that if the books do not sell, they are not out any money.
Author and Book Expositions and Festivals:
These are becoming increasingly popular. They can be sponsored by promoters of a specific genre, like Connecticut's Horror Fest, or can be regional, like the New England Author's Exposition. They can also be HUGE, like Book Expo America. At these events, authors may purchase a booth or table for the length of the conference, anywhere from one to three days. Costs can vary widely, so decide if you are going as a money making venture to sell cases of books or as a promotional gesture to increase awareness of your name.
If you are doing a festival or a local event, make sure your display generates excitement. Take some time and put effort into your visual presentation. The picture above tells a visual story even before I've started to speak.
Affinity Event Marketing:
I'm a big fan of these. Affinity marketing is finding a group of people who may be interested in your book for a different reason. Maybe it's your alma mater's homecoming weekend eager to showcase what several of its alumni are up to, or maybe its a NASCAR race where one of the vendors is happy to provide a table for your mystery book that features dirt track racing. I find these events to be really worthwhile because you are not competing with other books or authors and are tapping into another love of your reader aside from, well, reading. I spent the weekend by the grandstands at the Private Book Clubs:
I always offer to attend book clubs. The miracle of Skype has helped me attend clubs as far away as Alaska. That's pretty good considering I'm in Boston. Readers are thrilled to host an author, and a shared event with friends is a memorable event for all. I will meet in their homes if they are local, otherwise, a restaurant, town hall, library or Council on Aging works well, too. Always bring a few copies of your books. Even if they've read your book via the library exchange, most readers love a chance to have a signed book in their collection.
Below are some pictures from a recent event at the Haverhill Public Library. Take a look, I'm sure you'll see someone you know - or should know! My picture from that day is above. Take a look at the displays to see what type of visual statement you feel comfortable making.
Kristin Bair O'Keeffe, The Art of Floating, and Holly Robinson, Beach Plum Island, both Penguin authors, holding copies of their new work.





Myfanwy Collins,  Echolocation  and I am Holding Your Hand collection of short stories, Engine Books. Keep your eyes out for her upcoming,  Book of Laney .


Dale T. Phillips has over twelve titles to his name. He's pictured here with Chris Obert of Pear Tree Publishing.




Barbara Kent Lawrence, author of An Island of Time

 Holly!


 Ursula Wong, author of Purple Trees





Rory O'Brien, author of Gallows Hill




Paul Janson, author of Mal Practice






Kristin!



Rich Feitelberg, Aure the Topaz




Susan LaFortune, Talking in My Sleep






Group shot!

Writer's Block? Start by looking out a window.

Sometimes the scourge of writer's block can be banished just by looking out a window.

I was lucky enough to travel to Beijing on business trip and took some time to walk the Great Wall of China. I snapped the picture above and remember wondering how cool would it be if that was the view outside my office window.

Like most writers, my office is in my home. My commute is comprised of shuffling into the kitchen for coffee, seeing the remnants of the feeding frenzy my teens went on after I went to bed, and plunking down at my desk. A whopping fifty foot journey. Then I stare out my window until the caffeine kicks in.

This view is much more pedestrian than the Great Wall. It's of a big oak tree that was mammoth-sized even before we bought the house. From this tree hangs my children's rope swing and a birdfeeder, allegedly of the squirrel proof variety. Both the swing and the birdfeeder are empty.

As I marvel at the blink of time the swing was in full use, I'm struck that the views out both windows are deceptively simple. It's just a wall or it's just a swing, but there are stories and truths worth exploring.

In Anne Lamott's book of writing, Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life, she talks about finding inspiration in the everyday and building the muscles of writing by starting small. By looking through a small frame, describe first what is there and then ask questions about why it is there or how it came to be.

My fingers stilled not from the terror of the blank screen, but from the flood of memories and musings about the roads not taken.

I'll take the view outside my office window - and all of its joys and pains - over the Great Wall's view any day.

Author to Reader (A2R): Stories of Real Life - Interviews

My favorite way to engage with readers is face-to-face at the variety of events I do. That way, I can answer their questions directly and provide them with the context and information they're looking for. The picture above shows fellow Sisters in Crime authors Edith Maxwell and Tempa Pagel at a recent New England Author's Expo put on by Pear Tree Publishing. In lieu of that, I really enjoy interviews in all their various forms. 
I've been pleased to have been invited to do interviews on different blogs and pod casts. I'd like to share them with you.
Dale T. Phillips is a New England based novelist, poet and mystery and crime writer. I really admire his ability to find time to write and to be an excellent promoter of not only his own works, but the works of other authors. He really understands the concept of "pay it forward" and creates a very loyal following of trusting fans. Dale and I are members of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. We met at an author event at the Chelmsford Public Library and he asked me to do a blog interview. I loved the questions he asked as they were not the same old, well worn variety. His questions made me think and I've had readers say they learned a lot from the insights he pulled forth. 
Penny de Byl is a new voice in the blog tour interview world, but has a thriving career and a wonderful blog you should all check out. It's not every day that you get to be somebody's "First," but that's exactly what I was to Penny. She launched a new feature on her blog, Five Minute Profiles, and asked me to be her first featured author. You can read the interview here.
Author First Radio did a terrific pod cast interview. I really enjoyed this host and felt he brought out a lot of interesting points that readers and writers enjoyed.
Reader outreach can take on a lot of different forms. There is no magic bullet, no one "right" way of doing things. Find what works for you and your readers and do it!

New England Mobile Book Fair Author Event

Please join me on Saturday, September 20 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST  for an author meet and greet. I'll be signing copies of The Charity and will talk about its upcoming sequel, The Troubles.

If you've never been to New England Mobile Book Fair, you need to get off your arse and go! For over 52 years, NEMBF has provided New Englanders with the best book selection and prices. They hold frequent events for readers to meet authors and are sure to have your sought after book in stock or will get it for you ASAP. They are located at 82-84 Needham Street in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts.

See you there!

P.S. - You can wish me a Happy Birthday, too!

A2R Marketing: The Push and Pull of Getting the Word Out

Doctor Dolittle's mythical beast of the pushmi-pullyu (push-me-pull-you) learned how not to work against itself. Learning the push and pull of effective author-to-reader (A2R) marketing has the same core lessons.

To get your book in front of readers, either you have lots of PR dollars to spend or are bootstrapping your way into bookstores and events. Being efficient with time and money counts for a lot. The concepts of push and pull aren't new. Pulling is frequently conceived as a figure hauling a massive task or insurmountable task, via a little rope slung over her shoulder, up a very steep incline. Pushing is seen as getting behind something and using the person's strengths to move it forward, inch by inch. The two forces are usually understood as working separately and independently from one another. If used together, the forces cancel each other out and nothing happens, leaving the decision to be choosing one technique or another. This is exactly what won't work with book marketing.
(For you smart-alec types out there, I'm referring to the effort of a single source or person, not a team of pullers and pushers of the sort that helped build the pyramids. Read on.)
Lee Oden, CEO of @Toprank Online Marketing, talks about push and pull in terms of pushing your news out to end consumers, then being pulled along as others pick up your news and give it to their end consumers. The two forces compliment one another and is much more in line with how I suggest you focus your efforts. His blog, linked to above, is well worth a read.
For an author, I speak of push and pull in terms of energy and effort expended in order to reap the maximum amount of reward from that effort. It's all about building momentum and excitement. The more of those you have, the more likely readers will talk about your book to new readers. Think of the hard slog uphill on a bike followed by the wind whipping your hair and drying your sweat on the other side. You pushed against gravity only to use it to pull and speed your way along. 
The Key is this: To have an easier time making up the next hill, use momentum to gain speed. Don't just sit there like a lump. Push those pedals like the dickens while you have the pull working with you.
Here are examples for book marketing:
Pushing:sending out a press release on the publication of your book,cold calling bookstores and libraries and telling them about your book and trying to get in front of their patrons,contacting local newspapers and magazines with a 'hook' into your book and/or personal story to tickle them into writing an article on you.
Pulling:

being invited to be a speaker or hold a signing (or do a blog tour) because someone heard about you or saw you at one of the events you pushed for,having an excited reader tell their friends they met you and that they should read your book,having a great review pop up.The Push-and-Pull:sending out a press release (or lighting up social media) that you were invited to appear and the date,offering to attend a book club in the home of the excited reader (or do a Skype chat), putting the review out where people can see it via social media, marketing collateral or the good old grape vine.

In essence, push and pull simply means don't let each success of getting the word out about your book lie fallow. Use it as seed for the next step and the next push. You work against yourself by letting all of the reward gleaned from a good push go unused. Without effectively using your pull, you are constantly falling back to the starting line.
Face it, the reason we all dream of being "Best Selling Authors" is so we can enjoy the pull of momentum our past works generated to liberate us up from pushing. With all that free time, we want to work on our next book. After all, our first love is writing.

New England Authors Expo - July 30th

It's all in a day's work.

As an author today, it makes little difference if you are with a big publishing house or whether you're an indie. The name of the game is to meet readers and engage them. On July 30 at the Danversport Yacht Club, I'll be doing just that. The New England Authors Expo is a terrific event for readers of all genres to come and meet authors and share ideas. Doors open at 4:00 pm and I'll be there to meet readers, talk about my work, sign a few books and maybe give a sneak peek or two to the upcoming sequel.

It's all about pressing the flesh, looking people in the eye, and (hopefully) making a good impression. I enjoy talking with my readers. I learn a great deal about what they like to read, what's next up on their bedside table, and what makes them put a book down. They help me become a better writer.

Hope to see you there!

The Author's Show Podcast Interview - June 30

Please tune in on June 30 to listen to my podcast interview on The Author's Show. Simply click on the link and the interview will stream in.