Writers In The Storm gives a hearty welcome back to New York Times bestselling author, Kat Martin. Publishing books since 1985, Kat knows a thing or two about great adventures. She's here to tell you about her latest adventures both off the page and on.
By Kat Martin
Every summer we try to have some kind of adventure. Not the hearty kind we used to undertake--like riding horseback into the high country or camping in a tent for a week. But whatever we choose, summer is great time of year for a getaway.
This year, we took off from our home in Montana and drove to the Western Writers of America conference in Albuquerque. We drove only back roads, just meandering two lanes, that wound us through six different states.
We visited Kathleen and Michael Gear--the authors of the PEOPLE series that takes place 10,000 years ago. They live on a buffalo ranch in Wyoming. We went to Moab, the rock-climbers paradise, where one of our grandsons lives. Spectacular scenery, like no other place in the country.
We were in Santa Fe for a couple of days--oh, that town is so cool. Historic buildings and gorgeous art galleries, to say nothing of the incredible New Mexican food. Off the beaten path, we saw tiny Indian villages and churches that were hundreds of years old. If you’ve never done a cross country road trip, it’s really a worthwhile adventure.
Speaking of adventure, DEEP BLUE is being re-issued September 1st, with a gorgeous new hunky male on the cover. Conner Reese is a salvage boat captain who is hunting for sunken Spanish treasure off the coast of Jamaica. He isn’t happy to have lady reporter, Hope Sinclair, along for the ride. It’s high action all the way and of course plenty of hot romance. If you haven’t read DEEP BLUE and would enjoy a great adventure right at home, I hope you’ll give it a try.
Howdy partners. It’s been a while since I last stopped in to visit here on WITS. Time flies when you’re having fun writing and promoting books, which brings me to today’s topic. As the title implies, Amazon forums offer authors an opportunity to promote their books, but only with caution and proper etiquette.
When I self-published my first book, Darlin’ Druid, in late 2010, I had no idea how to use Big A’s customer forums. In fact, I didn’t even know they existed, but I soon learned about them – the hard way.
I discovered the forums by accident, from chance comments by authors on other sites. My first thought was “Oh boy! Now I can tell readers about my new baby.” Certain all the historical romance fans would be eager to buy it, I dipped my toe in the Romance Forum pool, letting readers know about my book.
One of the “forum police,” a reader who shall go nameless, immediately snapped off a sharp reply, something about needing to “bump” an earlier warning to authors not to promote their books on the forum. That made me scratch my head. If I couldn’t tell romance readers about my book, how was I supposed to reach them?
Eventually, I found a few author friendly threads where I met readers, authors and ebook reviewers who kindly welcomed me into their midst. There, authors were able to talk about general writing topics and promote their projects. I connected with some wonderful folks on those threads, was invited for interviews on blog sites and even received terrific book reviews from a few readers.
However, my sales were slow, driving me to become reckless and post promo messages on two or three romance forum threads, where readers were looking for book suggestions. Big mistake!
One of the above mentioned self-styled forum cops proceeded to add four nasty tags on my book’s retail page. She didn’t call me out about my posts, just did her best – her worst, I should say – to drive customers away from my book.
When I discovered what she’d done, I was horrified. I screamed about it on the friendly threads, and a number of my new friends hit the disagree button for those tags. Believe me, I learned my lesson.
I never again posted on the Romance Forum.
A few months later, Amazon introduced the Meet Our Authors Forum, where authors are encouraged to exchange advice about writing and promoting their books. A lot of authors complained that we were being corralled in a sort of prison where we’d have no contact with readers. To some extent that’s true, but not entirely. Some readers do visit the MOA threads looking for new authors to try.
Introduce yourself on a few MOA threads, ones that suit your genre.
Be friendly, offer advice if you can help fellow authors, visit their blogs and Facebook pages, and ask them to visit yours. If you’re lucky, as I have been, you may form lasting relationships that will lead you in unexpected, fruitful directions.
As for those reader forums, look at them, lurk in the background, learn what customers are looking for, but NEVER promote your books there.
Instead, look for friendly readers on the MOA Forum. Offer them a free copy of your newest book. If they like it, ask if they’re willing to post a review on the book’s retail page. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll drop a good word for you on the reader forums.
I hope I 've given you a good idea of how to navigate Amazon forums and make them work for you. Have you self published? How has your experience been? What areas of promotion have provided you with the best results for your books?
If you’ve followed our blogs here at WITS very long, you’ve seen that there’s a lot more to us than the stories we write. We all have other interests; Sharla has her dolls, Fae has cats and cards, and Jenny has Baby Girl and underwear (we'll wait - we know you're going to check out the underwear!)
I’ve got other interests as well. Yeah, there’s motorcycling, bicycle riding, and fly fishing, but today, I want to put forth a case for my biggest obsession. No, not food.
Pro Bull Riding!
Why? I’m not a country girl; I grew up in Detroit. I don’t much like country music; to me, a steel guitar sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. So how could I have gotten so wrapped up in a sport that I wrote a three book series set in that world?
I’m fascinated by young men who, through courage, craziness, or under the influence of large quantities of testosterone, get on the back of two thousand pounds of attitude that wants to throw them in the dirt and dance on their dangly parts.
The athleticism. Bull riders have more in common with gymnasts than wrestlers. The mechanics require more balance than brute strength.
These aren’t media savvy, spoiled athletes. They’re mostly kids off farms, and ranches. Watching their wide-eyed interviews on camera, and talking to them in person, gives me hope for the future of America. They remind me with their gentlemanly “Ma’am’s” and “Sir’s” that mothers somewhere are still raising kids right.
I’ve watched this sport grow over the past ten years, and have enjoyed watching events that are real -- not slickly orchestrated and Hollywood perfect.
But the bigger picture is that these men represent the American Cowboy; a rare breed in today’s society of political correctness and metrosexuals. They still live by the belief that their handshake is a scared promise, and integrity isn’t what you talk about, it’s what you live. They live by a code that they’re willing to die by. How many people do you know like that?
Do yourself a favor. Check out their website. Tune in to a PBR event some weekend (TV schedule is here.) I dare you not to get sucked into the drama. Maybe I’ll see you at the finals in Las Vegas some November!
Let ‘er buck!
How about you? What you do, when you’re not pounding a keyboard? WITS readers want to know!
Laura has written three books set in the world of Pro Bull Riding. The first, The Sweet Spot, is due out next May, from Grand Central.
