Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight~ Caridad Pineiro
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Pocket Books
A: It’s been an exciting experience with Pocket Books. They acquired this book, as well as three others, at auction which was a thrill for me. Since then, I have been working with their editorial staff on the novels and also dealing with their publicity department. This was the first time I’d worked with an in-house publicity department on one of my novels. We coordinated with the publicity department as to who would get ARCs, what ads would be run where, press releases, signings, and lots of other things.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I think the first step is to always try and maintain fresh content on your website so that readers will keep on coming back to find out more information about you and your novels. To do this, we redesigned my main website at www.caridad.com and added new features. We also created an entirely new site for THE CALLING vampire novels at www.thecallingvampirenovels.com. At each of the sites, we offer exclusive content, such as free reads, deleted scenes and even new scenes to complement what wasn’t in the novels. Once we did this, we worked on a blog and having regular and updated content and also, worked up a campaign to promote the novels on the Internet and through traditional media. This meant arranging for reviews, interviews, ads, etc.
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Be proactive instead of reactive. You need to reach out to readers and fans through your websites, chats, blogs, interviews, etc. Why? Just because you wrote a book, it doesn’t mean the readers will know about it or care to read it if you don’t give them the information they need to decide whether or not a book will appeal to them. Also, romance readers are a unique and amazing group of people. They love chatting with you and meeting you on a personal level. The reward of creating these friendships is immense and will sustain you when you hit the rocky patches of publishing.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: SOUTH BEACH CHICAS CATCH THEIR MAN is about the relationships between mothers, daughters, lovers, friends and fathers and not necessarily in that order. Sylvia Amenabar, the heroine, is an up-and-coming reporter in Miami. Her last story nearly resulted in the death of undercover cop Carlos Ramirez, who Sylvia had started to fall in love with. Sylvia feels guilty that he nearly died for her, but is even more conflicted about what she is feeling for Carlos since Sylvia thinks all men are dogs. That attitude was fostered by a dysfunctional family life and Sylvia’s mother, Virginia, is convinced that to change that attitude, she must have Sylvia meet her father and discover the truth behind their family history. When it turns out that Carlos may not be a hero and that her father is not what she thought, Sylvia’s world is turned upside down and she turns to both her mother and lifelong friends to help her find balance in her life. I loved this story because of the relationships between all of the characters and the emotions they were forced to explore. In particular, it was a blast to also write about Virginia and Pablo, Sylvia’s parents, and explore romance between fortysomethings.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: I just finished another novella for Pocket – a story about an Aztec demon. After that, I’m working on the next three novels in THE CALLING vampire series which will be out starting in 2008. Finally, I’m working on a new proposal for another South Beach story – about Adriana and Riley – and also developing two single title paranormal romantic suspense stories. I love working in all the different genres and sometimes even work on multiple projects at once. It helps me keep the writing fresh and different.
Q: How did you get into writing?
A: I wrote my first novel in the fifth grade when our teacher assigned a project – to write a novel that would be placed in a class lending library. I went home and started writing the day she announced the project. My poor mom ended up typing 120 pages! After that, I kept on writing in school literary magazines and newspapers, but after high school, I took an entire month off from work to write my first novel. I kept on working on that novel through college and law school, but never finished it. After my daughter was born, I decided that I had to give writing another chance and I dusted off that novel and got to work on it. I met a wonderful lady, Fern Michaels, through an adult education class and she sent off the first chapters of that novel to her publisher because she thought I had potential. They didn’t acquire the book, but suggested I try contemporaries and several years later, they eventually bought one of my books. Since then, I’ve been writing a few books a year.
Q: How do balance family and writing?
A: It’s hard to balance so many things. I still work full-time as well and so must divide my time between work, family and writing. I try to keep my writing to the hours when it won’t interfere with work or family. To do this, I write on the commute to and from work and get up very early on the weekends to put in a few hours of writing before the family is up. However, there are some things I can’t schedule for those off hours, like book signings, conferences and other events. I often take vacation time to attend the conferences, but always keep time set aside for family vacations as well. In addition, if there’s any way to include my family in the events, or with other writing chores like promotion, I do so. My husband and daughter have been at conferences with me and my daughter is my personal assistant. She helps me put together and mail promotional items. Helps with the website and attends book signings, etc. to offer up encouragement. Her involvement with my writing life has helped her discover her love of writing stories as well, so it’s been a win-win situation. Is it tiring to juggle so many things? Yes, sometimes it truly is very exhausting, but writing is my passion and I can’t imagine not doing it.
LINKS:
http://www.caridad.com
http://www.caridad.com/blog
http://www.thecallingvampirenovels.com
I often imagine writers out there who sit at their desks surrounded with calm and quiet as they work diligently away on their stories. That is so not my life. 
