Marketing with Mandy~Nathalie Gray
Marketing with Mandy ~ Author Nathalie Gray
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Ellora’s Cave and Red Sage.
A: Ellora’s Cave were the first to take a chance on me. They weren’t afraid to publish a book with a bounty hunting, six-foot tall heroine who cursed, smoked, blew stuff up, and shot her way out of trouble. Since I signed with them in 2005, I have over twenty titles with them. I’m well on my way to my goal, which is World Domination - One Reader at a Time. Recently, I signed with the venerable Red Sage, who, just like Ellora’s Cave, let me stretch my wings. I told them “I write stories about strong women who curse and fight and wear lip gloss and big shiny scifi guns? Wanna read it?” Red Sage, instead of running for the hills, said “Hell yeah”. Well, okay, they didn’t use those words. But the contracts, they started coming in!
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I keep my website updated almost daily. No blog, no MySpace, nothing else but my site. It’s my one-stop shop. I also put paid ads in print magazines, online review sites, etc. I don’t belong to many chat loops because I like to believe that my books can speak for themselves. But I do belong to one group, The HussiesTM, a bevy of unruly erotic romance author gals who’ll give it to you straight. Love them!
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Don’t follow a rule off a cliff. Make your own rules. Don’t listen to anyone giving you advice, especially me.
Q: How did you get into writing?
A: Writing is my second career. I spent 12 years in the Canadian military (army), where I learned English (my first language is French), the many uses of duct tape and parachute cord, and how to armpit-fart. Then I started thinking…mm, how could I recycle all those nifty skills? And BOOM! It came to me. Erotic romance writer, of course.
Q: What types of research do you do for your books?
A: This has to be the one aspect of writing that makes me turn from friendly, tail-wagging Labrador to fanatical, snarling she-demon. My research, I’m proud of it. There’s nothing I won’t do to get the goods on something. Etymology, historical goodness, metallurgy, nanotechnology. If I need it for my story, then I’m all over it like, well, me all over my kid’s bowl of candies on Halloween.
Q: How do you balance family and writing?
A: Stephen King has a good one on this. He said that he once owned a manmade, mammoth desk that he’d use for writing. That it throned in the middle of the room, just like his writing primed in his life. Until a realization hit him. Life isn’t a support system to writing. It’s the other way around. He says his desk is now a normal, office desk, in the corner of the room, and he sits at it with his back against the wall. That’s perspective, man. I feel the same way. My office door is never closed, my back is to the wall.
Q: What would you do if you weren’t a writer?
A: I’d like to be a bouncer at a rowdy tavern. Nothing tickles my inner Chihuahua more than the idea of grabbing a pair of boorish drunkards and tossing them out on their heads. That or archaeologist. What?! What did I say?!
Links
I invite you to my site, where you can browse my catalog of digital and print books, read interviews and reviews, or just laugh at my picture album.
http://www.nathaliegray.com/
