The smallest library I've ever seen

As many of you who follow me know, I have a foot in two worlds ... southern Nevada and St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. I have a condo in both places and divide my time between the two. Nevada is as different from St. Croix as night is from day. One is a tropical paradise and the other is a desert, both beautiful in their own way.

A few years ago while exploring my Island paradise, I ran across the smallest library I have ever seen. I just had to stop and check it out. I couldn't believe that it really was a library but it was indeed, complete with a librarian. I just happened to have a copy of my Desert Heat, Cabin Fever and Emails from the Edge with me in the car because my good friend and author and world-class promoter Janet Elaine Smith taught me to never leave home without a couple of copies of my books just in case I needed them. I asked the librarian if I could donate my books to the library and she gladly said yes. Sooooo ... if you are ever in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, stop by the Sunny Isle Public Library and look for my books.

Oh by the way, Janet, if you are reading this you will be happy to know that I also donated a copy of one of YOUR books that I just happened to have on hand. You will know which one if you look closely at the picture below. :)

1st Turning Point

I am really impressed with this new place for writers. Their slogan is Authors Teach, Share, & Learn–All About Promotion ... and they really do! I was invited to join from Facebook and have not regretted my decision to jump on their bandwagon. I look forward each day for their email message notifying me of a new article posted to the site.

For instance today's article is Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance by by John Foxjohn.

Here is the first paragraph to whet your appetite. Because of copyright that is all that I will post but you can read the complete article by CLICKING HERE ... and I highly suggest you do so if you are serious about your writing career.

The 5 P’s of Self-Promotions

I actually began teaching self-promotions because my friends titled me the “King of Self-Promotions,” and wanted me to teach them. Now I teach the classes at workshops, conferences, and online. I titled these classes the 5 P’s of self-promotions. It stands for prior planning prevents poor performance.

Why book tours are passé

Author readings and signing sessions, once the staple of publishing publicity, are being usurped by virtual encounters and promotional videos.

By Teresa Méndez Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The author tour, with its accompanying readings and signings, has come to be the quintessential tool for promoting books. It is a chance for writers to charm their readers and for readers to glimpse the person behind the words. At its best, the meeting can be electric. (At worst, nobody shows up.)

But in the past five years or so, observers say the traditional author tour has been in decline: Fewer writers are being sent out, and those who do tour make fewer stops. Among the many reasons for this shift are marketing tools that have made it possible to orchestrate a virtual encounter, without the hassle or expense of travel. Publishers and authors are now touting books through podcasts, film tours, blog tours, book videos, and book trailers. In fact, it's unusual for a book not to have some sort of Web presence. (Blue van Meer, the fictional main character in the 2006 novel "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl, even has her own MySpace page.)

Publicity departments used to be places where wacky ideas originated but languished, says Carol Schneider, executive director of publicity for Random House. Now, with the Internet, she says, "they are really able to carry [those ideas] out."

Each is a small experiment, an incremental move, as the publishing industry has begun to embrace the Internet and other new media. It's hard not to wonder, though, whether their cumulative effect will one day render the face-to-face bookstore meeting between writer and reader obsolete.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE

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