Book Signings...

I am a rather shy person. I see y'all who know me rolling your eyes and shaking your heads. But I am shy. I don't like to toot my own horn, and I certainly am NOT a salesperson. In this business, however, I need to just get over myself.

In January, when I received my box of books, I dragged myself here and begged my friend who happens to be part-owner of the bookstore to allow me to have a book signing. Ellen was extraordinarily gracious and, much to my surprise, more than happy to offer her services. On March 7th, I had my first book signing. It was great fun. I had threatened all of my friends and family appropriately and forced my father to serve wine to prevent people from running out the door. Phew, book signing number one was a success.

Onto book signing number two. With the help of family, I managed to secure a signing at Malaprops in Asheville, North Carolina. Finding Malaprop's was a piece of cake. It was finding North Carolina that we had trouble with. That story will be told at a later time. Anyway, Malaprop's wanted a reading. Please refer to Paragraph 1 of this post regarding my inherent shyness. This was a nightmare to me. A huge obstacle and one I sweated about. My kind friend, Ellen, laughed and told me to pick a paragraph or two and keep it under three minutes. Three minutes is a life time when reading ones own words.

I didn't read. Couldn't. Nope. No way. What I did do is play on one of my strengths -- talking. I love to talk. And I had a whole room full of people ready to listen to me. So I talked about the Niger Delta and about the plight of the gray wolves. I was nervous. I kept that "three minute" number in my head and blabbered away. In hindsight, I probably could have slowed down just a bit and relaxed. But Ellen said three minutes, damn it. And that's what I was going to do. So in three minutes, I educated everyone on the Niger Delta and the gray wolves. You can imagine how fast I was talking. But I survived.

And now I am on a mission to find other independent book stores to allow me a signing. It's not easy to garner book signings. Actually, it's plain frustrating. But it's my job. Because after this month, Devil's Gold is no longer new. I am the person that has to push it out there and keep it fresh.

On a totally unrelated subject -- I have some very cool bookmarks. So if any of you have my book and would like a bookmark, just let me know!

Julie

Marketing...who me?

My boss, who you can find here, is an inspiration when it comes to marketing. I am a lousy blogger but have come to the realization that this is an important tool and should not be overlooked. I sat back and thought about what I can do to make this an interesting place that readers would want to come back to again and again. Honestly, I know none of you care about what I had for dinner or how much weight I need to lose. I had to figure an angle out, similar to how my boss has cornered the market on Father's Rights. I am a curious person by nature and nosy. In addition to that, I do live a rather unusual and larger than life existence. I'm also a klutz and know how to laugh at myself. So I have thought that my angle to this whole blog thing will be to allow y'all a small insight to my crazy existence while connecting the dots to influences in my writing. This will either be extraordinarily boring or slightly entertaining. AND, most of all, having just had my book released this month I thought that I would also bring you on the journey of self-promotion and all the thrills and frustrations I am finding along the way.

So to break it down...I am going to have three focus points of this blog:

1. Writing - my personal insight into the craft
2. Marketing - my personal insight into promotion and book sales
3. Another dreaded moment - your insight into my person

Here we go....

Release Day!

I can't believe my baby is officially part of the "published" world. Amazing. What a wonderful feeling this is.