Marketing and Publlicity
Is it time for product placement in fiction?
A month after my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, hit the store shelves, I began receiving the occasional but persistent email from readers asking and oftentimes accusing me of having made product placement deals during the writing of my book. It would seem that my frequent use of specific brand names in the book had struck a…
Read MoreUNEXPECTEDLY, MILO update
My book tour continues this week with appearances at The Book Cellar in Brattleboro, Vermont on Thursday night at 7:00 and at Water Street Books in Essex, New Hampshire on Saturday night at 7:00. I’ve been guest blogging about book tours on Water Street’s blog, which you can read about here. My final post in…
Read MoreAn idiot with a difficult name
A surprisingly large piece about me and the book appeared in the New London Day on Sunday. There was a photo of my book on the front page of the paper and a reference to the story, which was a full page spread on the front page of the Daybreak section. Reading an article about…
Read MoreDaily Candy and The Wall Street Journal!
This has been a good day. UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO hit bookstore shelves yesterday, and today it was reviewed by Daily Candy and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Daily Candy, an enormously popular website that everyone seemed to know about prior to the review with the exception of me, ran their review on their front page…
Read MoreThe demise of the book tour and the rise of its replacement
The Los Angeles Times published a piece on how book tours have transformed over the years, and especially now in this economy. Author Carolyn Kellogg writes: “As the business of publishing changes, book tours increasingly look like bad risks. ‘In 99.9% of cases," says Peter Miller, director of publicity at Bloomsbury USA, "you can’t justify…
Read MoreGetting the word out
It’s been a good week in terms of getting my name out. An article written about me by Janet Cyr, a college student, has run in three different Connecticut papers, including the Journal Inquirer and the West Hartford News, a hometown paper for me. She’s making the most of her assignment for me and her.…
Read MoreHanderpants!
Katherine from Bunch of Grapes Bookstore recently made me aware of the fabulousness of Handerpants. I know. Handerpants are nothing new. I have a friend who wears a version of handerpants regularly (much to the amusement of her husband), but I always admire a company that can take a simple, well-worn idea and repackages it…
Read MoreMany hands make light work
My wife came home this afternoon and said, “I did some community relations for you today. You’ll be speaking at the Barnes and Noble in Blue Back Square.” Really?” “Yup.” “Um… do you want to tell me how that happened?” She had begun to make dinner, seeming to end this line of questioning. “I went…
Read MoreAppearing at the Wilton Library
Tomorrow night, I will sit on a panel of new authors at the Wilton Library in Wilton, CT. If you’d like to attend, you can find details here. Though we will be discussing our books, the night’s focus will be on our journey to publication. There will be writers in the audience in need of…
Read MoreInstant communication
USA Today did a piece on authors using Twitter to communicate with their readers, something I have been doing for quite some time, and while the 140-character limit can be frustrating for someone who normally tells a story in about 100,000 words, Twitter has clearly done an effective job of bringing me into contact with…
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