Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Settle in With a Cup of Coffee and Chat With an Author

Grab that cup of coffee and settle into your comfy chair. Why? Author Interviews on Omnimysteries.com make for some revealing and entertaining reading. That's a viable reason, I think. I mean, don't readers want to know more about the authors they follow other than their publishing career credits? I know I do.

Anyway, here's the link and oh, wait ... I do believe mine is up and running!

   Omnimystery News
        

Sunday, July 14, 2013

All Good Things Come to Those Who Wait ... and that includes book reviews!

Finally have that write-up on DYING TO DREAM posted in the Akron Beacon Journal today :-) That makes me very happy! And it's timed perfectly for my first book event this Tuesday. Cheers!

Dying to Dream In the Beacon


Akron Beacon Journal                                                                         Sunday July 14th, 2013


Long’s ‘Dying to Dream’ continues psychic theme

Among Uniontown author Kathryn Long’s previous books are the comic Lilly M. mystery series about a sort-of clairvoyant woman who lives with her meddling extended family in a town that very closely resembles Barberton. Long’s new novel Dying to Dream carries over the psychic theme into darker intrigues with a deep southern flair.

The main character is Marin Seurat, who’s relocated to Quebec but has been fetched home to Louisiana by her cousin, Charlene. There’s a curse on their family and a possible hidden treasure that Marin may be able to find by watchful attention to her dreams and the occasional visits of ghosts. A more immediate issue is the apparent suicide of Marin’s former flame’s father, who was despondent after his fishing business was destroyed by the Gulf oil spill. Was it really murder, and can Marin and Trent recapture their romance?

The cousins’ wily, interfering Tante Louise, who practices voodoo and usually is mixing up a gris-gris, and a stranger who’s competing with Trent for Marin’s attentions work into the plot. The narrative is sprinkled with French Creole expressions.

Dying to Dream (243 pages, softcover) costs $15.95 from Mainly Murder Press. Long will discuss and sign her book at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Green branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library, 4046 Massillon Road.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Tragedy: Name That Author #2

Let's try another American author who may not have died as young as Hemingway, but the death was oddly tragic. As was his habit, this author placed the cap of his eye drops in his mouth before tossing his head back to administer the eye drops. Different, huh?

I guess you'd call this a freakish, once-in-a-million type of occcurance. On the night he died, the bottle cap became lodged in his throat, and alone in his hotel room in New York, there was no one to come to his aid. It is believed that alcohol and prescriptions drugs may have contributed to his death by having weakened his gag reflex.

Such a successful author ... yet, maybe fate had another plan.

So, do you know who this mystery author is? If you want to make a guess ... please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!


STILL NO TAKERS?  TIME'S UP! AND THE ANSWER IS ..... TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Virtual Blog Book Tours ... Do They Really Help Promote Sales?

Since I recently decided to give this a try ... sort of a booster shot for my latest book, I felt compelled to research what others had to say about the benefits of such venues as virtual blog tours. I was curious whether or not they found it really increased sales. Well, the overwhelming response has been positive.

It makes sense that in order to have your book sell, or any other product for that matter, it needs to reach its market of consumers. The problem is with so many products out there in cyberspace being advertised twenty-four seven, how does one get noticed or at least rise above the rest to have a fighting chance? The more you expose yourself -- no pun intended ;-) -- the more likely people will start to notice, maybe get curious, go check your product or service and buy.

Almost everything I read about a virtual blog tour falls in the plus category, exposure being the main one to find more buyers. The other benefit is creating that platform people talk about. If you sell yourself first, then consumers may become more comfortable with buying the products you offer. And in the world of authors and books, readers do tend to want to know more about the authors and their interests, maybe details on how their story ideas are developed, things like that. Being a guest on various blogs, providing answers to an interview, choosing to write a blog post, etc. helps create that platform.

The downside? Well, unless you plan on a ton of work putting together your own virtual tour where you have to find various bloggers who will agree to having you as a guest, then making sure they have enough followers, that the blog matches with your product idea, coordinating the schedule, etc, you have to consider another option. That option is to find a business site that does this whole thing for you. And that costs money. So, you start comparing, see who gives the most bang for your buck, so to speak.

I am trying Reading Addiction Virtual Book Tours to hopefully get that platform moving and promote sales of Dying to Dream. It's a two week blog tour where I make 10 virtual stops the first two weeks of August. The price was reasonable compared to other sites, at least it fits my modest budget. I'm excited to see what it can do. And once it's over, I will be sure to come back here and post the results!

In the meantime, speaking of guest appearances, why not go over and check out my guest spot on Emerging Novelists ? This is Michael Murphy's site creation to help promote authors like myself. Kudos to him for being such an altruistic guy!

Happy reading!