Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Dorchester?
A: Working with Dorchester is like being part of a big family where everyone is so comfortable with one another, you’ve almost got your own language. It’s a wonderful environment, and very nurturing.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I don’t have any, to be honest. I make bookmarks, of course, but those are mostly for my readers and not part of any active promotion. Dorchester, on the other hand, has been fantastic about pushing each release through various buzz campaigns, capitalizing on word-of-mouth through the use of ARCs. It’s a wonderful program, and I really do think it has helped my sales. It all comes down to readers, after all. It doesn’t matter how much you promote your title with trinkets and gimmicks, the readers are the ones who raise you high (or tear you down), and thank goodness for that. It keeps you on your toes.
Marketing with Mandy ~ Author Eve Kenin (aka Eve Silver)
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Dorchester.A: The entire Dorchester team is amazing to work with, and the energy and excitement surrounding the new SHOMI line is phenomenal. My editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, has boundless enthusiasm for my post-apocalyptic, trans-Siberian trucker romance and she is so much fun to work with. From our very first meeting where the heel of her shoe broke and we had to go on an emergency shoe-shopping outing, I felt that she has a wonderful ability to combine absolute professionalism with unbridled enjoyment. (And she forgave me for having the fashion sense of a gnat, for my deep-seated abhorrence of shopping, and for my suggestion that she buy the unfortunate clear lucite stiletto heels, LOL!) Add to the Dorchester mix talented marketing, sales, and art departments, and the experience could not be better.
Actually, I have the privilege of working with two other publishers as well: Kensington and Grand Central, and I count myself as fortunate to have the opportunity to work with talented, brilliant, supportive editors and publishing houses.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: Networking and publisher support are the two best promotional tools you have—aside from writing a great book. The more friends you have out there spreading the word about your book, the better off you’ll be. Ultimately, sales drive careers and word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools there is—and the hardest to get going.
Having said that, there are some things we can all do improve our odds of reaching prospective readers. I worked in marketing for many years—mostly for high tech products—but many of the concepts and practices do transfer fairly well. Here are a few tips:
1) The work comes first. All the marketing in the world isn’t going to help you if your book either (a) does not exist, or (b) does not meet reader expectations. Write the best book you can, polish it ‘till it shines. If you don’t do that, the rest is a waste of time.
2) Track and measure the success of your marketing efforts. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Metrics are hugely important. If you don’t know which marketing efforts are being most effective, you’ll have no idea how to spend your money/fine tune your efforts in future. At a minimum, track where your contacts are coming from. Here are a few simple ways to do this:
a. Ask the reader when they contact you. Where did you hear about me/my book? (this is not always reliable as people don’t always remember, but it’s worth asking)
b. Use a different email address for various “marketing/promo” campaigns. Most hosting accounts give you lots of email addresses for your website. Some as many as 100 or more. Use them. If you’re doing an ARC giveaway, for instance, have people email “ARCGiveaway@clwilson.com” to enter. If you’re going an ad campaign, have them email “RT_Ad@clwilson.com”, and so forth. You will know that any emails coming into these email accounts came from your specific campaign.
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Dorchester Publishing .
A: I’ve been extremely happy with the way that Dorchester has marketed my books so far. They really gave me a big push for the first one, being as it was launching the new series, and, from what I can tell, it’s paid off. They’ve been very supportive of any marketing that I’ve wanted to do and done tons of great promotion that I couldn’t have accomplished on my own, such as sending me on the Kmart Sizzling Summer Reads tour last year and sponsoring a weekend getaway contest for readers.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
Marketing with Mandy ~ Erin D. Galloway, Marketing & Publicity Coordinator for Dorchester Publishing
First off, Erin, thank you so much for taking time out to join us here on Marketing with Mandy.
Q: For anyone who doesn’t know who Dorchester Publishing is and what they do, could you please tell them a little bit about the company and yourself?
A: Dorchester Publishing has been publishing mass market books since 1971, making Dorchester the oldest independent mass market publisher in America. Although mostly known for romance, Dorchester also publishes world-class horror, thrillers and Westerns titles, as well as the award-winning Hard Case Crime line of pulp-style mysteries, Science Fiction and Fantasy titles from the award-winning Wildside Press, and most recently the groundbreaking fiction line SHOMI, a blend of action, adventure, Science Fiction, Fantasy and romance.
Q: What is Dorchester Publishing in the market for from authors? What would you like to see more of? Less of?
A: Dorchester is always looking for something different. We like books that do not neatly fit into specific categories. For example, while we certainly publish what could be considered traditional romances, we also enjoy romances that break out of accepted rules and traditions and try something completely different. Dorchester was publishing paranormal and futuristic nearly a decade before the big paranormal boom. As a publishing house we know what it means to take risks and try new things for books we believe in. We look for books with a unique author voice or a unique take on a traditional time period or story.
Q: What do you feel is the single most important thing an author can do to promote their work, after writing a “killer” book of course?
I’m sick so I’m doing nothing productive at the moment. I began scrolling through the net and found this. It had me rolling so I thought I’d share. Keep in mind that I ADORE James Blunt. I just thought this was brilliant.
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Virgin Books.
A: I love working with Virgin Books. The company has been great to me as an author. I originally started working with the UK office and everyone there has been wonderful. Adam Nevill, my editor, is a gem. He does the work of twenty and still manages to answer all my emails. And, with Random House acquiring 90% of the company, there is now a USA office. In the US, I worked with Ken Siman–another gem. Both have put so much support behind me and my books.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I do everything I can think of–interviews, guest blogs, my own blog, the Pillow Scavenger Hunt contest (with over 60 participating authors), The Raven with esteemed MwM Hostess Ms. Mandy Roth *waving at Mandy*, podcasting, free stories, contests, link exchanges, book videos, myspace and other social networks, a constantly updated website, conventions, promo mailings… I’m always willing to try new things when it comes to promotion and love it when people email me with opportunities.
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with PublishAmerica.
A: So many people say negative things about PublishAmerica. I have had a few run-ins; however, they have done most of what they promised to do. They printed the books, made them available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and through Ingram, Baker & Taylor. They created pretty good cover art for each book. They have provided some review copies, though not as many as I would have liked. They didn’t ask me for any money and they usually answer my questions. Although I have been unhappy with a couple of things, it’s not anything that would have deterred me from going with PA for my first couple of books.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I try everything. I spend hours online each night looking for different ways to promote. If I see something on another website that catches my eye, I think about how I could adapt it for use with my books. Some things work, some things don’t. It doesn’t hurt to try them on for size.
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Don’t get discouraged by other people’s negativity. You have your own to contend with. There will always be people out there who make it their mission in life to keep you from following your dream. We’ll never know why, but we should keep in mind that those people simply don’t matter. Let them have their own misery and don’t get tangled up in their attitudes.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: My latest book, Under Lock and Key: The Rona Shively Stories is the second book in the Rona Shively series. In this book, Rona tries to maintain her sanity while facing some serious conflicts. Her new boyfriend is acting squirrelly, her old boyfriend is out of jail and has his sights set on her, her sister and nieces are visiting from out of town and as usual, her client is a little on the strange side. Between the old memories and old flames, Rona is just plain frazzled. By the time this one is over, she’s got some big decisions to make.
Q: What’s your favorite genre to write in and why?
A: I really enjoy writing in the mystery genre. I am an avid mystery reader, so this is a place where I feel comfortable on either side of the book. Mystery allows you to do wonderful things with your character. She can fall in and out of love, she can kill people, she can do nice things (heaven forbid), she can find the bad guys or she can just pick up and leave. There’s always something screwy going on somewhere and you can embellish on real-life cases or make up your own craziness. I have a lot of fun with my characters and I like seeing just how far I can go with something. I was always a fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, writing a mystery is ten thousand times better.
Q: What types of research do you do for your books?
A: I do a lot of internet research, library research, etc. As I said earlier, I read a lot so between my own experiences and the books I’ve read over the years I can put some interesting things together. If there’s something I don’t know a lot about, for instance, I’m not extremely well-versed in firearms, I can ask my husband. He’s very knowledgeable about guns. He tells me when my character should have released a safety or some little thing that I wouldn’t have known. I’m not afraid to call people and ask questions about things I don’t fully understand. The fact that I do a lot of investigating is kind of funny since I write about a sarcastic, little woman who investigates for a living. Vicarious living at its finest.
Q: What authors inspired you growing up?
A: Growing up, I read Laura Ingalls Wilder and VC Andrews. I loved reading their stories over and over. If I can get lost in a story and visualize the characters as I read, then I know I’m reading an author who truly cares about their writing. I have the same respect and admiration for Lisa Scottoline, Janet Evanovich, and James Patterson. These writers pour themselves into their stories and you can really get into their books. They continue to inspire me to make my characters and storylines as believable and true-to-life as possible.
*PRIZES-If you win a prize in a contest or theme day (etc) from Mandy's blog or from any of its affiliates and do not claim it within 30 days, its void.
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