Great Promo Tip

Author Linnea Sinclair shared this great promo tip with me. When she's writing a new book, she notes great "clips," small snippets that tell a sort of mini story or make a great teaser. She copies them into a file marked, "promo tips for book XXX" and then gets the file out when she ramps up the promo engine. She randomly copies the clips into the signature file for her email and "teases" readers until the book releases and beyond.

It certainly worked to get me to read more of her work!

Perilously yours,
Pauline

Agatha Nominees

I just read on DorothyL that two L & L Dreamspell authors have been nominated for an Agatha Award in Murder New York Style, an anthology published by (who else?) L & L Dreamspell. This brings well-earned attention to a great publisher after only one year in business!

Best Short Story"Casino Gamble", by Nan Higginson (Murder New York Style, L & L Dreamspell)
"Death Will Clean Your Closet", by Elizabeth Zelvin (Murder New York Style, L & L Dreamspell)

Laura

New Books - New Authors!

It's been a long time since I've posted on our team blog - and it's not because there's nothing new. On the contrary, we have a lot of great new books by our team of fantastic authors!
Since last fall we've released two mystery anthologies - "Dead and Breakfast" by the Final Twist Mystery writers - a collection of short mystery stories all set in Bed and Breakfast Inns. Also "Murder New York Style" by the New York/Tri State chapter of the Sisters in Crime. It's theme is "New York" - and includes 21 great short stories.
We also released the latest in the "Third Eye" mystery series by Sylvia Dickey Smith - "Deadly Sins - Deadly Secrets" - and Betty Gordon's legal mystery "Murder in the Third Person."
Veteran author Pauline Baird Jones penned a Sci-Fi romance novel - "The Key" - it's her best book ever, and was on the best seller list at Fictionwise (in ebook format) - of course it's also available in print form (as are all our books!)
Our author John Foxjohn wrote another novel in his David Mason series - "Cold Tears" - and it was just named NUMBER ONE MYSTERY in the Preditors and Editors readers poll - congratulations John! (also note that his historical fiction novel "Journey of the Spirit" was named number TWO in the same Preditors and Editors poll, in the mainstream category!)
We published "Left at Georgetown" by David Ciambrone - his first novel with L&L Dreamspell, but not the first in his "Virginia Davies" mystery series.
If you are a dog lover you'll want to check out Cherri Galbiati's first in her new "American Service Searchers" series titled "The Scent of Money" - a "cozy" style mystery novel.
And just to prove we aren't only publishing mysteries - we released the first novel by new author Christine Prebler - a dark erotic adventure titled "Vampires at the Opera" - an interesting blend of the characters from two classic stories - Dracula, and the Phantom of the Opera.
Also we just released "The Bodyguard and the Rock Star" - a romance novel full of action and adventure. It's Christy Tillery French's first book with L&L Dreamspell, but not her first novel in the "Bodyguard" series.
Lisa and I are extremely pleased with all the great new books and authors - we wish them great success - be sure to visit our website and read more about them! www.lldreamspell.com
And stay tuned - we've added even more new authors, and we'll be bringing you a lot of new books in 2008!
Joining the team are: Laura Elveback - author of the upcoming mystery "Less Dead" - Caitlyn Hunter - author of the upcoming romance "Snow Shadows" - June Venable - author of the upcoming young adult novel "Hannah's Journey" - and there's more!
We are publishing the second mystery anthology novel by the Final Twist mystery writers group, and have added in these new participating authors: Cornelia Amiri, Loretta Wheeler, Charlotte and Mark Phillips, and Shirley Wetzel.
One more note - author John Foxjohn's latest David Mason mystery novel, "Color of Murder" will be released this fall!
Happy reading - Linda - L&L Dreamspell

That Linda!

When plans fall apart, it is great to have Linda around to glue the pieces back together!

My first order for Deadly Sins was for 100 books. Then, at Art in the Park, in Orange, the books were such a success I was left with 15 of the original hundred. (I'd mailed some out for reviews, etc.)

Then came my move (don't need to explain that difficult process!!) and I forgot, until a week away from my book launch in Orange, to order more books. Not to worry, the printer can print them in a week, right? Well, they can if their machines don't break!

The day before the launch Linda calls and says--yep, the machines are down, no books!

The folks at Bayou Trading, where the book launch was held, had advertised in the newspaper, sent out a mailing to over 200 customers, etc!

Well, I was about to cry in my beer when Linda emails with a plan--a plan she stayed up all night to put into place. She created bookplates, IOU's, and a decopage plaque of the Sabine Lighthouse featured on the book cover. Folks willing to prepay and wait a few days for their books received all of the above as a gift! A couple of folks who got books even bought the plaques!

The event went off without a hitch, folks had a great time, and everyone was patient with the circumstances--thanks to Linda's work!

I never felt so proud to have the L & L Dreamspell team as partners in my writing venture!! Can't get much better than that!

Hope Linda got a good nights sleep Saturday night! You gals are the best!

I Got a Spam Promotion from Another Author...

...and posted it to one of my writers' loops to start a discussion on how to write good promo material. It was particularly awful, so I won't post it here or mention any names, but will list what was wrong with it, which will hopefully help.

Mistake #1 - Sending promo unsolicited. I almost deleted it unread and am glad I didn't--though not for the reasons the author would want.

Mistake #2 - It had a lousy opening hook. The blurb talked about demises and other negative things, then in paragraph two mentions it is a comedy!

Mistake #3 - There is nothing in the blurb that engages or excites about the story. In fact, I'm still not sure what the story is even about. The author uses ten words (huge and pretentious words) where one or none would have been better. He also focuses on all the wrong things and ends the blurb in a self-congratulatory, arrogant way.

Mistake #4 - Though I can't prove it, it looks like the author "created" his own review quotes. The writing similarties are marked to the point of embarassing--and are as badly written as the blurb. (I could do a whole blog on how bad the review blurbs were, but won't go there right now.)

Mistake #5 - His bio was as badly and oddly written as all the other elements of the pitch.

It's amazingly easy to write bad promo material, though this particular pitch didn't look easy--it was very painful to read and looked painful to write, too. It's much harder to write your own promo well. As the author of the material, you're close to it and we tend to focus on all the wrong things.

Remember that you only have one chance and a few seconds to make a good impression, whether its in person, on your website or through an email. Always, always put your best foot forward. Don't tell your intended target how much they will like your book. SHOW them with a great opening hook that focuses on the ACTUAL STORY.

Most readers don't want to know the themes you explore in your book. They want to know that you have a great story and characters. Again, just telling isn't enough. SHOW them. A pitch is your first chance to show your potential audience that you can WRITE. They WILL judge your book by how you present your self and your material.

If you've written a comedy, show it in the first sentence. When you are trying to sell a screenplay, you have to start with a one or two sentence "log line" that distills your story down to its essential conflict and main characters. I use that for my opening sentence when I'm writing a query letter.

And if I get a slew of "nos" back, then I KNOW I need to retool and rewrite that opening. Don't be afraid to keep writing and rewriting your promo material until you start getting positive responses. It's also a good idea to practice your "elevator" pitch, so when someone asks you what your book is about, you can tell them in an interesting and intriguing way.

I try to structure my promo material into:

* logline
* Brief synopsis (a couple of paragraphs about the book)
* Longer synopsis (but still no more than a page)

NO WHERE in this material, do I talk about myself, how I felt about writing it or what a wonderful writer I am. These are only about MY BOOK. They are only about my CHARACTERS. And the CONFLICT.

If you can learn to get out of your own way and become adept at promoting your work, it WILL help you with your agent/editor/publisher and ultimately help you find readers.

But still don't spam. It's tacky and unprofessional. :-)
Perilously yours,
Pauline

Happy Halloween!

It's is beautiful here in Houston today and finally COOL! I'm so excited to have my a/c finally off that I'm offering anyone who emails me, a free pdf of my short story, Do Wah Diddy Dead. If you email me at pauline@paulinebjones.com with DWDD in the subject line (or even not!), I'll send it to you.

I'm also thrilled at a new review for The Key:

"There were many characters, good and bad, on all sides of the plot, with most of the characters filling important roles. Sara was a wonderful character, I could have seen her walk right out of the book...I loved the development of love between Sara and Fyn. Ms. Jones wrote a wonderful book. I will certainly put her on my to be read list." The Romance Studio

Hope you're having a fun day!
Perilously yours,
Pauline

Thank you Linda and Lisa at L&L Dreamspell for making me realize my personal dream of being a published author.

Hi all,

If you don’t know by now, my first novel, “Vampires at the Opera” went on sale on Monday. If you are over 18 and would like to purchase it, it is available at the Dreamspell website. For someone who is a first time author, words cannot describe the wonderful and very emotional feeling of seeing one’s book listed on the various book selling websites.

Today, I received my author copies in the mail and loads of goodies from Dreamspell.
I loved the shirt and the tote bag but it felt incredible to finally physically hold the actual novel in my hands. I am extremely pleased with the overall look of the book as well as what is between the pages. Thanks Linda for doing a wonderful cover (I loved it from the first time that I saw it!). I want to thank Lisa who did a great job editing my manuscript for publication. It reads so smooth and sharp! Thanks also to Linda and Lisa for the beautifully framed memento commemorating the publication of my novel. It was a very touching gift and I have it in my office now, next to my computer.

I also want to say a special "thank you" to my fans who have followed me and my universe. I hope you will support my novel and stay around to see what happens next in my Dracula Phantom of the Opera series.

Which brings me to sharing with you all my next goal. As excited as I am to now have my novel set free for all to read, I have to confess, publishing it has made me eager to achieve my new ambition. The writing of my second novel in my Dracula-Phantom of the Opera series.

Take care all,
Chris