This week’s question: When crafting a new story – what works best for you, laptop, fountain pen, dictation, or longhand?
For me, I write best on a laptop as it is the fastest option to free flow my words. What about you?
Last week’s question: What is your motivation for writing more?
My reply is that I have so many stories tumbling around in my head, I have to keep writing to get them all out. Many of you know I only began ‘writing’ when I came to Canada so I’m now making up for ‘lost’ time! I have always been creative but for whatever reason I had never written ‘stories’ before for the explicit reason of allowing other people to read them. Mandy Eve-Barnett
As we are nearly at the halfway point for this year’s author interviews, I thought it would be interesting to review the answers I received to the question: What is your best marketing tip?
The answers are varied and, I think reflect how comfortable (or not!) writers are when it comes to promoting ourselves.
These are not on any specific order.
1) Be consistent on social media and within your local community
2) To have a blog
3) Build an authentic brand
4) Connect with other authors in the same genre and be a presence in specific social groups relating to it.
5) Word-of-mouth promotion
6) Promotional items sold separately reflecting the book/genre i.e. toys, necklaces, headbands etc. Also hand-out bookmarks everywhere you can.
7) Live videos/podcasts either on Facebook or YouTube – this can be book specific or about you as a person and your writing/genre.
8) Be original, authentic, and make intentional connections
9) Utilize your readers/tribe to help promote through social media and local connections.
10) Use your connections that are involved in newspapers/magazines etc.
11) Talk to your local library and bookstores. Offer your time to do signings/readings.
12) Use Canvas to create your own ads for Twitter and Facebook.
13) Youtube book trailers.
14) Market yourself as an author before you market your books.
15) Take part in interviews, whether online or face-to-face.
What have you found works best for your book promotion?
Today’s question is: What is your motivation for writing more?
My reply is that I have so many stories tumbling around in my head, I have to keep writing to get them all out. Many of you know I only began ‘writing’ when I came to Canada so I’m now making up for ‘lost’ time! I have always been creative but for whatever reason I had never written ‘stories’ before for the explicit reason of allowing other people to read them.
What is your reason – leave a comment below.
Last week’s question: Have you ever turned a dream or a nightmare into a written piece?
Katie O’Connor.
I’ve done that. Some of my best ideas come to me in dreams. If I was a thriller or suspense writer, I’d have even more writing material. My brain likes to frighten me at night.
I was watching an old Agatha Christie movie. And I thought what if my amateur sleuths decide to solve a murder, but with much less skill. My ladies are a modern-day Miss Marple with a bit of bite and a lot of humour.
How did you come up with the title?
I’m an avid golfer, but my golf shot does not always go where I want, like down the fairway. Hence the name Wayward Shot. The wayward shot leads the ladies into a wild adventure.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Life does not end when you reach fifty plus, adventure is waiting for you.
How much of the book is realistic?
Nothing
Are your characters based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
No, no one I know, but bits and pieces of personalities I have meant over the years may poke up now and again.
Where can readers find you on social media and do you have a blog?
No blog.
https//facebook.com/mablemysteries
https//twitter/@joanjhave
https//Instagram/joanhavelange
Do you have plans or ideas for your next book? Is it a sequel or a stand alone?
I don’t know.
Of the characters you have created or envisioned, which is your favorite & why?
I guess Mabel, she says and does things we would like to, and Violet is the exact opposite, she holds Mabel back from disaster. Well, some of the time.
Do you favor one type of genre or do you dabble in more than one?
Mysteries, I like the puzzle.
Do you plan your stories, or are you a seat of the pants style writer?
I plan my stories. I start out with a What if. Then I plot out the story line.
What is your best marketing tip?
Your blog for one, you can have a fabulous book. But if the readers don’t know your book is out there. Fabulous won’t help.
Do you find social media a great tool or a hindrance?
So far it has been good to me.
OPTIONAL QUESTIONS
What do you enjoy most about writing?
I love the what if. I take an ordinary circumstance and then I do the, what if this happened.
What age did you start writing stories/poems?
I started writing in my twenties, romances, but I was never published.
Has your genre changed or stayed the same?
I now write Cozy Mysteries, I found out I was not very romantic.
What genre are you currently reading?
A mystery, but I do read other genres.
Do you read for pleasure or research or both?
Pleasure, but you learn as you read.
If you could meet one favorite author, who would it be and why?
Linwood Barclay, his mysteries are amazing I never figure out whodunit. I love his humour too.
If you could live anywhere in the world – where would it be?
Right here. except when it’s minus crazy.
What reward do you give yourself for making a deadline?
A cup of coffee.
Bio:
Joan Havelange has been writing fiction since her early twenties, beginning with romance stories. Always a fan of mysteries, she is an avid reader and writer of cozy mysteries.
She is an accomplished actor and director of community theater, which lends well to her writing. Joan is a world traveler and enthusiastic golfer. She lives on the Canadian prairies and has three grown children.
So it seems it’s been a week of delays! Here is the question of the week.
Have you ever turned a dream or a nightmare into a written piece?
My answer: My current WIP is a steampunk novel and the initial scene in it is of a dream I had. It was so dramatic I knew I needed to use it somewhere.
Last week’s question: When creating your stories, do you tend to write your protagonist as the same gender as yourself – or do you use the genre dynamic as a device?
My answer: I do not have a particular gender I write about but in my novel, Life in Slake Patch I purposely used a young male protagonist due to the basic theme of the book – a matriarchal society and a young man’s life within it.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 