Indie Publishing is booming and authors/promoters like Bk Walker and Janis Friesler help to make it easier to get your name and book in front of the public.
Bk Walker is a self-published author of multi-genre fiction. Bk also owns Virtual Book Tour Cafe where authors can schedule book tours, book reviews and book blitzes.
BIO: B.K. Walker is working as a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, and has had a love for reading and writing since she was a child. B.K. also runs several blogs, where she hosts author interviews and organizes virtual book tours for other authors, helping them to promote and market their work. She lives in Pennsylvania with her three children, a Pitbull named Rancid, a Dachshund named Sadie, a cat named Whiskers (aka Shitigan), and a goldfish named Albert.
BIO: Janis Friesler was born in Milwaukee, WI. and attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison and UCLA. Janis earned a degree in English and Education. She taught elementary and middle school for many years. She is retired from teaching but subs a few times a month to keep her knowledge up to date. Janis is married and has two dogs that are adorable, Cosmo and Gizmo, and her hobbies are playing bridge, golf, knitting, and reading books.
I'm excited to introduce these two wonderful authors who followed their dreams and are always willing to help a fellow author. Bk and Janis collaborate often between their businesses to offer the best services available.
Help me give these very busy ladies a warm welcome!
Louise: Bk and Janis, welcome to my blog! I’m so excited you
two could join me for a chat. I have to say I admire the both of you and the
many talents you have. When did you first decide to create your
marketing/advertising companies for authors? Tell us what or who encouraged you
to take this big step.
Bk: I decided about 2 years ago when I was finding many
authors not sure what to do about promoting their work. There was so much
frustration you could almost feel the tension in the air, even while sitting in
front of my computer.
The Virtual Book Tour Cafe was created with authors in mind to give authors and their book the attention they deserve.
Janis: Hi Louise and all your readers. This is a very interesting question with a
rather long answer. I was a middle school English teacher for many years. After
I retired, I designed websites for small businesses, most of them for my
friends. I have a childhood friend, Trish Silver who I haven't talked to for
many years. We connected on Facebook
like many long lost friends have done. As fate would have it, she wrote a book,
When I Remember Love. When she found
out I knew my way around computers, she asked me to run her website, so I did.
I have always been an idea person. As a teacher I won quite a few awards for
curricular project design. I started
getting ideas about promoting her book on her site. I studied best practices in book promotion
leading me to social media marketing with a peppering of Search Engine
Optimization. I learned about video book trailers blogging, and Amazon book
promotion, Linked in groups, Twitter for authors on and on. I worked on my new
education for a year. I met BK searching
information about blogs and put Trish on one of her book tours. Now I put all my authors on the tours.
Louise: Please tell us a little about your companies and
your web sites.
Bk: I'm the founder of the Virtual Book Tour Cafe'. I
organize virtual book tours, setting authors up with various blogs to do
interviews, guest posts, giveaways and sometimes they even get a review of
their book. I also offer other services, which I've deemed “Cafe' Creations',
creating Book Trailers, cover art, promo ads, banners, blog headers, buttons
and more. Anyone can stop in to either of my sites, both have info, www.virtualbooktourcafe.com and www.vbtcafe.com
Janis: Another interesting story.
A little over a year after I started researching my career, a former 8th grade student of mine, David
Schultz, graduated from Carnegie
Mellon University
in Physics and Computer Science. We have
kept in touch over the years because he would help me with my websites. When he was my student, he did all the
computer programming for an online interdisciplinary project I wrote on the
Iditarod. It was an amazing project that
won first place in the country. Because
of it I was written up in an article for the Knowledge Loom. a US Department of Education Website at Brown University.
By the time he graduated, I was being contacted by
people in my Linked in groups to help them promote their books. I would express some of my ideas in the
groups and I people liked what I had to say.
So I decided to branch out. I
talked to David and he agreed to create all the Wordpress websites and blogs
and help with other technical details. I
would run the company and do all the promoting.
That is how Assisting Authors Online was born. I had to have a blog so I decided to do series about promotions that authors could do themselves. Of course when they find out how much time it takes, some would rather I do it for them. I also give shorter tips on Facebook, We have so many services, but what I have found
out that works best is a Book Launch and has structured our services to fit
this blue print. We have a pdf
explaining this plan on our website.
Louise: Now Bk, you’re also an author with several books
under your belt. Tell us about a typical work day for you.
Bk: I don't get much time for writing, that's for sure lol. I
normally get up and grab some coffee, gotta have my caffeine or, ya know I
might actually die or something. I then sit in front of my computer, answer the
thousands (literally) of emails I get daily, responding to questions about
tours, writing in general, advertising. Then I hop on over to FB & Twitter,
respond to those, gotta keep up social networking #goodforbusiness. I schedule
tours, design banners, create media kits for the authors going on tour. I take
the dogs out and feed them. Turn on channel 833 on my Satellite – Classic Rock,
answer some more emails that have meandered in. Finalize schedules, send them
out to authors and hosts. I'm continually updating schedules from signups.
Sometimes I plug into my radio show on Blog Talk Radio for an author interview,
and I constantly promo current tours. When
my muse strikes I take time to write in one of the 7 books I'm working
on. That usually doesn't happen until way late at night, or maybe it's morning,
like now LOL.
Louise: Please share with us without giving any spoilers a bit on
your latest release Night Secrets.
Bk: Night Secrets is actually a book that I didn't think
anyone was going to like at all. It turns out that everyone likes it though! *happy dancing*
Keara Crosby has just lost her parents in a plane crash. She
is learning to live without them while in her Senior year of High School. Her
father's sister has been given legal guardianship over her until Keara
graduates, but the deal is she must move from Ireland to the states to honor
that. When Aingeal, (Keara's Aunt) arrives, Keara starts noticing strange
things happening and finding weird items in her room, backpack, that her aunt
has left her.
When a new club in town opens, her best friend Jared talks
her in to going. Only going was a lot more than she bargained for. She is faced
with vampires and werewolves all while learning about her true heritage. She
soon comes to realize that some things of the night, just may kill you.
Louise: Janis, I see you have published Use Amazon To Promote Your Books. What kind of feedback are you
getting from authors who have purchased this book?
Janis: I wrote this book for people who sign up for my
newsletter. They get it at no
cost. It is really a compilation of blog
posts with some updating. I haven't have
time to write a book to sell since I am doing so many things for my clients and
to help authors. I think they like the
book. I hope your readers will sign up
for my newsletter and get the book. If
you do readers, please leave a comment on my blog or Facebook page, and let me
know what you think.
Janis: I am going to compile another book, Why Authors Should Blog
from my blog posts on that topic. I am
going to give that away to all the people who "Like" our Facebook
page.
Louise: Please tell us why it is important for a new author
to get their name and work on social medias (Twitter, FB) and blogs/websites.
Bk: It's the perfect way to connect with readers, promote their
work, and make new friends. It’s a great platform to build on. How else are
people going to know who they are?
Janis: When someone writes a book, it is like giving birth. There is a profound personal attachment to a book that has been created from the mind and heart of the author. Every author wants their book to be loved, but the problem is there are so many authors with so many books, how will their book be found? That is why social media is so important.
Here are a few things an author can do to get his/her name branded and book known.
Facebook
Author pages can get targeted traffic. Have a contest or a give-a-away. Have your book trailer on your page, put up
your book tour schedule and banner. Ask
questions on your wall, do surveys.
Always respond to comments.
Blog
Authors must have a blog.
I am big on self-hosted blogs (your own domain). Then you can have an RSS feed that will feed
the blog to blog directories, social media sites, and tons of other
places. Make sure that you writes posts
that are related to your book but don't self- promote.
Go to other book blogs, many have author promotions, free
reviews, spotlights, guest blogs.
Linked in: Linked in
has so many author groups and some give excellent tips to promote books. Make sure that there are a lot of members in
the groups for more exposure.
Book Trailer: A book trailer is a must have. A video book review is a great. You can put these videos all over the
place. There are many video sites to
show off your book.
There are so many sites to use to get the word out.
The bottom line is to sell a book; people have to know about
it. This takes time and a hard work so
be patient.
Louise: How do each of you think eBooks have impacted books
sales for authors and do you see the traditional print copies fading away?
Bk: I think the digital world has EXPLODED book sales. Why
wouldn't it? It's right there available for immediate download, people can view
billions of books, and never have to leave the comfort of their homes. Some
books may not even be carried in retail stores.
I don't think paperbacks have faded away completely, but with
technology on the rise with Kindles, Ipads, and the Kindle Fire even, it's
definitely not going to see as many sales as digital. There are still those few
that HATE e-readers. But, maybe they've not even tried it, because I thought I
would hate them too until my kids bought me my Kindle. I love it!
Janis: I think eBooks are here to stay, but I don't think they will
replace print books. I love my
Kindle. I hate taking a ton of books on
a trip especially now when they weigh suitcases.
I also like eBooks because one of the services I do is format eBooks so they can be converted for Kindle, Smashwords, IPAD, Barnes and Noble, etc. It is trickier than people think to make eBooks look good.
I also like eBooks because one of the services I do is format eBooks so they can be converted for Kindle, Smashwords, IPAD, Barnes and Noble, etc. It is trickier than people think to make eBooks look good.
Louise: Who/what is your favorite author and genre to read?
Bk: I absolutely love JD Robb and Laurell K. Hamilton for a
traditional authors, and Tina Folsom for an Indie author. I could read her work
all day. I didn't think I'd like historical romance until Tina introduced me to
Paranormal Historical Romance with her book, Venice Vampyr. Beautiful!
Janis: I have a lot of favorite authors because I have fairly
eclectic taste in books. I really love
books by Ken Follett. I am really
looking forward to his second book set during WWI.
Louise: Bk and Janis, thank you so much for joining me on my
blog. I encourage the authors who have stopped by to utilize your services to
market their books and the readers to visit your sites to find fresh and
seasoned authors to follow!
BK: Thanks so much for having us today Louise. I had so much
fun just taking a break and you had some pretty great questions.
Janis: Thanks Louise for inviting me to this stimulating
interview. I really enjoyed answering
your thoughtful questions. I look
forward to meeting your readers.
Readers and Authors, both Bk and Janis' sites have Authors/Books to explore and great writer resources!
Readers and Authors, both Bk and Janis' sites have Authors/Books to explore and great writer resources!
BK Media Entertainment on Facebook
VBT Cafe Facebook Fan page
Bk's Amazon Author page
BK Media & Entertainment - Blog Talk Radio
Listen to internet radio with Bk Walker on Blog Talk Radio
Visit Janis on her web sites:
Assisting Authors Online Facebook Fan page
