Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Denise Tompkins

Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Denise Tompkins

Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Samhain Publishing.

A: Working with Samhain has been a great experience overall. They keep the author involved in the process of editing, cover design and jacket copy development. Because it’s important to me to feel like I’m part of the developmental process for my books.

Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?

A: I like to blog, and I come up with very funny and/or catchy blog titles that make people curious enough to visit my site (i.e. Drop the Fire, Dumbass; Snorkeling in Your Cereal Bowl; Mythology, Death and Play-Doh). I have participated in blog tours, advertising campaigns and other traditional media efforts. I’m active on Twitter and am always looking for new ways to connect readers with my books.

Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?

A: The biggest thing I’d have to share relating to marketing is this: don’t spam your own book. It can be very difficult to avoid doing, but your readers don’t want to get hit with repeated spam-type comments about how great your book is or how much you need us to buy from you. I realize this may seem a bit blunt, but hard truths are never easy, by definition.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?

A: My newest release, Wrath (Samhain, 04.03.12), is the sequel to Legacy and picks up where the first story leaves off. Wrath is a story of personal growth and definition, one that takes the heroine, Maddy, into difficult personal territory. She has to stop a murderer who has targeted her as his ultimate goal, and she has to determine to whom her heart belongs.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?

A: My latest WiP, Raising Cain, is out with my agent. We’ve finished revisions and she’s pitching it to several editors in New York, so it’s a very exciting time for me right now. The story is a complex urban fantasy series about a woman fated to stop the Apocalypse and the man hired to kill her in order to bring it about.

I’ve just started the sequel, The Ruin of Souls, and I’m having a blast writing it.

Q: How did you get into writing?

A: I began writing stories in first grade (my mother has evidence). I wrote through school until I graduated from college and then life took over. I left it alone for a number of years while I focused on a corporate career. Medical issues took me out of corporate America and my husband bought me a laptop and said, “Write. It used to make you happy.” He was right. I began writing and never looked back.

Q: How do balance family and writing?

A: This is something I’m constantly struggling to manage. I find the biggest challenge for me is that my productive time of the day tends to come late afternoon and into the evening. This is when my husband is just coming home from work. To balance this, we’ve committed to a date night at least once a week and we spend Sunday mornings together no matter what else is happening. He’s the most supportive man, and I’m ridiculously lucky to have him.

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