So You Have A Book To Sell by Catherine West

Let's face it. As writers, all most of us really want to do is write the book or article or short story. But if we want to successfully publish that work, it means marketing. Today, author Catherine West gives us some pointers to help with selling our work. -- Sandy

Catherine: You wrote your book and got it published! Now, sell it.

Not as easy as it sounds.

Even if you’re with a big publisher and have a marketing team supporting you, it’s a tad intimidating. But, with careful planning, I believe we can all be successful marketers. Here are just a few things that have worked for me:

Reach Out - Once you have an estimated date of publication, gather your potential endorsers and influencers. Contact your community in a personable and friendly manner, giving them an out if they cannot commit to helping you. For most of us in the publishing world, these are your friends anyway, and friends love helping friends.

Create a strong online presence – Create a professional-looking Author Page on Facebook, post often (but not too often), be interesting, share your author friends’ new releases too, don’t be all about ‘me’ and your books. Update your website with current information relevant to your new releases or publishing journey. GoodReads is a must for authors. Create Pinterest boards for your books – readers love these. Instagram is another great visual social media platform. Twitter and Google+ are other ways of connecting online. You may find ‘doing it all’ impossible – choose platforms where you see the best results and concentrate on those. When you do post about your book, be sure to include buy links. Use memes with a quote from the story, this is much better than just blasting the cover a hundred times.

Get Help! - Create a team of enthusiastic readers who will do all they can to help promote. I have a secret Facebook group for my dream team – this is a great way to develop friendships too – because it’s not just about selling your stuff – it’s about creating community. Sales will grow organically from your authenticity.

Guest Blogs & Interviews – Secure these ahead of time so the posts start to hit around launch time and beyond. You want your book to show up in as many places as possible.

Author Chat and/or Launch Parties (Facebook) – This is a fun way to connect with readers and talk about your books and upcoming releases. Use videos. Be available though, because once conversation gets going, you want to be in the middle of it! Offer a few giveaways over the course of the party. I’ve found the best time is afternoon into early evening – I’m on Eastern time so this also allows west coast peeps to participate.

Be Yourself – Whatever methods you choose, one thing I can’t stress enough is just be yourself. Be approachable, be upbeat, don’t fake it. If you’re struggling with something, don’t hide that. Authenticity is everything. Have fun with the marketing process, and remember at the end of the day, it really is God’s thing. And what a gift to be able to follow our dreams!

Even if you're unpublished, you're building a platform. What have you found to be the most intimidating or successful technique for marketing yourself or your book?

~~~~~

Award-winning author Catherine West writes stories of hope and healing from her island home in Bermuda. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or reading books by her favorite authors. She and her husband have two grown children. Catherine’s novel, Bridge of Faith, won the 2015 Grace Award. Her new novel, The Things We Knew, releases July 12th, 2016, through Harper Collins Christian Publishing.


Catherine loves to connect with her readers and can be reached at Catherine@catherinejwest.com

Website – http://www.catherinejwest.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CatherineJWest
Twitter - https://twitter.com/cathwest
GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4715219.Catherine_West
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/cathwest/
Google + - https://plus.google.com/u/0/108781711729974539211/posts Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-West/e/B004RWZUHK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

What I Learned In Vietnam by Catherine West

Veteran's Day is Friday. I daresay everyone reading this has had a loved one or known someone who has been a veteran. But unless we've actually served in the military, how do we really know the sacrifices they've made to protect our freedom? 

Catherine West has written Yesterday's Tomorrow, about a journalist who travels half-way around the world to bring the Vietnam war home to those left behind. Today she tells us how she came to write that novel on such a difficult subject. Be sure to check our her blog (http://www.catherinewestblog.blogspot.com) for a chance to win a copy of her book. She'll be giving it away on Veteran's Day, this Friday, November 11th.

~ Angie

Many years ago, an idea for a story came to me.

Why it did, I'm not sure. But it took hold and hasn't let go yet.

I heard a story about combat-journalists, many were young women, who left home, some left their jobs, to fly halfway across the world into a war zone. They risked it all, risked their lives, to cover The Vietnam War. And I wondered why. I wondered what that would be like, what those women were like, what made them tick, and what a story like that would look like. And I knew I had to write it.

A few years later, I completed a manuscript called Yesterday's Tomorrow. It takes place over a span of a few years, 1967-1975, predominantly in Vietnam, during the war, and the female protagonist is a young woman who strikes out on her own as a combat journalist.

For a long while, I didn’t fully understand why I wrote this story, why the pull was so strong, why it meant so very much to me. Thanks to OakTara and their willingness to take on what is sometimes still seen as a controversial setting and subject, now that Yesterday’s Tomorrow has been published, I’m starting to find out.

I was too young to remember the Vietnam War being fought. Living in Bermuda, I'm sure my parents didn't get as much news as they would today. Although I don't remember it, there is something undeniable about that time in history that draws me.

I have never been to Vietnam.

But as I wrote this story, I lived there.

As I read the stories of those brave men and women who were in the thick of it and survived, I went there with them.

Writing this book took months of research. I didn't set out to write a war story, so it was never my intention to bog down the story with military information, but I knew it had to be authentic. So I launched my attack on every book I could find, every website and every photograph that covered the era I would write about. 

Writing Yesterday’s Tomorrow changed me.

Up to that point, I had no idea what war was all about.

War was a faraway concept. Something I learned about in school. Something I read about in the newspaper, watched reports about on television.

Something I would certainly never have to face or deal with firsthand.

While that is still true and I pray it stays so, I have a greater understanding of what it means to go into battle.

And I know that is a good thing.

I remember getting to a point in my story and having to stop and take a break and pull away.

I even questioned whether I should continue writing it.

Somehow I felt as though I was stepping on holy ground.

I was.

But, with a lot of encouragement, I pressed on.

They say Vietnam gets into your soul.

It does.

Those who were there and came back will never be the same.

War does that to a person.

Although the war ended thirty-six years ago, it lives on in the hearts and minds of those who came home. It lives on through the memories we have of those who didn’t. It lives on in the legacy that the courageous men and women who lost their lives in Vietnam left behind.

I learned that even after thirty-six years, there are things you just don't talk about.

After thirty-six years, the pain doesn't end. Maybe it lessens a bit, but it never really goes away.

I am not sure a writer can ever capture that kind of truth in the way it needs to be told.

I don't know that one can ever accurately portray the fear of being in a helicopter heading for a hot zone or wading through a dark, dank and putrid swamp with no idea who might be hiding in the depths of that jungle. How can you describe with any authenticity what it must be like to watch a friend die in your arms?

But we try. And I believe we should try.

Because all these things—the horrors of war, the deep bond created between those who served there, and the ultimate sacrifice so many made—should never be forgotten.

Although my book is a work of fiction, I have heard from more than a few people that it has helped them see Veterans in a different light. It has given them a new perspective on war and its many facets. In some small way, it has helped them understand. And to that, I say, thank-you, God.

I came away from this project with this question: Do we write merely to entertain? Or do we write to enlighten, educate and encourage our readers to examine their hearts on matters they may have previously ignored?

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

That's what I learned in Vietnam.
---------------


Yesterday's Tomorrow

Vietnam, 1967.

Independent, career-driven journalist Kristin Taylor wants two things: to honor her father's memory by becoming an award-winning overseas correspondent and to keep tabs on her only brother, Teddy, who signed up for the war against their mother's wishes. Brilliant photographer Luke Maddox, silent and brooding, exudes mystery. Kristin is convinced he's hiding something. 

Willing to risk it all for what they believe in, Kristin and Luke engage in their own tumultuous battle until, in an unexpected twist, they’re forced to work together. Ambushed by love, they must decide whether or not to set aside their own private agendas for the hope of tomorrow that has captured their hearts.

---------------

Educated in Bermuda, England and Canada, Catherine holds a degree in English from the University of Toronto. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or tending to her roses and orchids. Catherine and her husband live on the beautiful island of Bermuda, with their two college-aged children. Catherine is a member of Romance Writers of America, and American Christian Fiction Writers, and is a founding member of International Christian Fiction Writers. Catherine’s debut novel Yesterday’s Tomorrow, released in March 2011 through

OakTara Publishers. Catherine’s next novel, Hidden in the Heart, will be available in the near future, also through OakTara.

Website: http://www.catherinejwest.com

OakTara Website: http://www.oaktara.com

Blog: http://www.catherinewestblog.blogspot.com

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVQUMRlYhkM

My Journey to Publication by Catherine West

Welcome to 2011’s first Fortifying Friday! Author Catherine West is here to help us dive into the new year. Her debut novel, Yesterday’s Tomorrow, is being released in March, and she’s sharing her journey to publication with us today. Her story is a great example of God’s timing and what it means to not give up.

My Journey to Publication
by Catherine West

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~ William Wordsworth

Writers share a love of words, of story, of seeing our thoughts come alive on the page. Some make great sacrifices to write. Many have day jobs and write in the wee hours of the morning or late at night. Others have small children and snatch writing time during naps or play-dates. Some are successful, and have the luxury of calling writing their career.

Why do you write?

My initial answer was easy. I wrote because I loved it! Having a story take shape in my mind, then unfold before my eyes was a fascinating pastime—a hobby I was content to enjoy when time allowed. But then a well-meaning family member asked another question.

Why don’t you try to get published?

The terrifying thought wouldn’t go away. And so, armed with a word processor and a brand-spanking new copy of The Writer’s Market 1990, my journey began.

Twenty years later, I am about to embark on the next stage of that journey. This year, I will see my dream come true as I celebrate the publication of my debut novel, Yesterday’s Tomorrow.

But wait, you say…twenty years? Twenty? Really?
Yes, really.

During those first years, my writing was extremely sporadic. I had two babies, I wrote when I could. I had no idea what POV or head-hopping meant, and plot was a place you buried people. I thought my stories were good, but they certainly weren’t publishable, not by any stretch of the imagination!

And so I gave up…

Writing is not for the faint of heart. I learned this pretty quickly once I really got serious about pursuing publication. When the Internet came along, I had a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips. I joined writer’s groups, got into a critique group, and discovered to my utmost horror that…I…Knew…Nothing. I was, for lack of a better descriptive tag, a really bad writer.

After a few stinging rejections combined with some personal issues I was experiencing at the time, I decided I really didn’t love writing enough to keep going. I gave in to self-pity and believed the voice in my head that told me I’d never make it.

Five years later, the urge to sit down and tell a story reawakened. But this time I was living life differently. This time I wanted to do it for God. The Christian market had grown and I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I asked if this was really what He wanted for me.

The answer was yes.

I knew I had my work cut out for me, but I was ready and willing to learn. It wasn’t easy. There were many more rejections, but slowly, doors began to open. I started to see God’s hand in it all, and there were many times I still wanted to give up, but I’m so glad I didn’t. Today I can tell you this—if you believe you were born to write, then write. Sometimes the only one standing in the way of your dreams is you.

Educated in Bermuda, England and Canada, Catherine West holds a degree in English from the University of Toronto. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or tending to her roses and orchids. Catherine and her husband live on the beautiful island of Bermuda, with their two college-aged children. Catherine is a member of Romance Writers of America, and American Christian Fiction Writers, and is a founding member of International Christian Fiction Writers. Catherine’s debut novel Yesterday’s Tomorrow, will release in 2011, through Oak Tara Publishers.

To learn more please visit:
Catherine’s Website at http://www.catherinejwest.com/
Oak Tara Website at http://www.oaktara.com/