Today's "What Do You Think About...Wednesday" guest is author Tamara Hart Heiner. She is the author of the newly published book, "Perilous". She was the perfect person to answer today's questions and she did a very honest and thorough job.
What do you think about the challenges as a first time author and promoting your new book?
The biggest challenge for me was financial. I have lots of grand marketing plans, but they are pricey, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll get my money back. So I’ve had to think simpler, try and do as much free marketing as possible. I’ve still invested so much into this book, but I try to look at it as a privilege to have been published, even if I don’t ever break even. The other hard thing is that no matter how hard I try, I can’t make myself a household name. 99% of Americans have never heard of me. First time authors, and especially small press authors, rely on word of mouth. So if you like a book, talk about i!
What advice would you give other authors with books coming out soon?
Take advantage of the free promotional activities! Goodreads has lots of free stuff to help authors promote their books. Find high traffic blogs and ask to do a guest post. I’ve done this a lot and people are very willing. Look at books similar to yours on Amazon, find the reviewers that liked it, and ask them to read and review your book. Ebooks are great for things like that. Don’t plan grand, expensive events (like at book signings) because other people aren’t going to follow through, and you’ll have wasted money (been there ). And probably most importantly—don’t read the reviews. At least nothing below 4 stars. You’ll just end up telling yourself over and over again that opinions are subjective. And you’ll sit there and wonder what happened to your confidence. You must believe your book is good to promote it, so keep your spirits high!
Bio: Tamara Hart Heiner lives in Arkansas with her husband and three kids. Her Young Adult thriller, Perilous, was just released in November, 2011. Since she wrote the first draft to this book when she was 13, she spends a lot of time mentoring youth, encouraging them to follow their dreams.
Find her at her blog, Chasing Dreams (tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com).
You can purchase "Perilous" at"
Sharing your experiences also helps us soon to be published types *knock on wood* learn from your lessons. I appreciate you sharing. Hopefully your next book will make more people go back to find your first one and read it too. I hope it only gets better for you. You deserve it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I found it very good advice as one who hopes to be in her shoes soon. I also enjoyed getting to know Tamara a little better. Up until now she was a faceless name at the end of her critiques (which I did find very helpful). We are in a new on-line critque group together, and though the e-critiques are helpful, the inability to see the person's face or get to know them personaly is a real down side to on-line critiquing.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you both found Tamara's advice helpful. I was hoping that those of us, a few steps behind her, could glean from her experience.
ReplyDeleteI know most of these guests I selfishly ask them so I can learn and hope others do too. Thanks Renae and Carolyn for your comments. :)
Great advice, Tamara. I know your success will pick up with your future writing. All will be good, keep plugging along. I believe in you!
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