In 1997, Rose took that last resort. She wrote an erotic, intelligent book called Lip Service, but nobody wanted to publish it. Rose took a giant risk with self-published e-books, drawing on her former career in marketing and the growing Internet communities to establish her name. The book sold 2,500 copies, and Rose landed her first book deal.
Since then, Rose has built her career on top of countless web platforms, including: breaking e-book sales records with her first novel, a virtual book tour that weaved between different blogs, and video trailers to sell her most recent novels.
For all these reasons, M.J. Rose was the perfect subject for my new, deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers--delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
What are the best tools for a fledgling writer to build a web footprint (i.e., which blogging platforms, editing programs, or search engines do you recommend)?
M.J. Rose:
Look into my marketing service, Authorbuzz.com. Its a fast and easy way to reach over 300,000 readers, 1200 booksellers and 10,000 librarians. Then the next best thing to do is become a really frequent commenter on blogs that mesh with the subject matter of his/her book. Its important to build slow and build honest. And then once the blog owner knows you as a commenter, offer a guest column.
Don’t get involved unless the people and the subjects matter. And every author needs a website but not a fancy one to start.
Just a business card. Clear. Updated and smart. Include an excerpt. And don’t blog just to blog it takes a ton of time and there are over 25 million blogs and that number doubles every six months.
It’s hard to get noticed now in the blogsphere unless you really have something unusual to say.
Jason Boog:
You've written a lot about podcasting lately. What are your podcasting plans? What is the most important bit of wisdom you've gleaned from the experts?
M.J. Rose:
That’s in the works. I’m still exploring it all. More on the blog when I figure it out. And the most important wisdom is that its easy.
Jason Boog:
Your blog depends includes material from your friends, including editors and writers. How can professional friendships help a writer? How can a fledgling writer build similar friendships? As a writer, how does your web community help your writing?
M.J. Rose:
Networking is king. Word of mouth is the result. You can’t underestimate the power of reaching out and becoming part of the community.
[My readers] don't help. I never discuss books in progress. And as for the balance, I don't have one. It's a mess. If someone can figure it out - please write me at MJRoseAuthor@aol.com and put HELP in the subject header.
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» Five Easy Questions: M.J. Rose, Part One from ThePublishingSpot
M.J. Rose’s blog opens with a modest reminder for fledgling writers: “There are over 195,000 books published a year and they can't all get reviews in the New York Times Book Review.” Nevertheless, this buzz-attracting lady... [Read More]
Tracked on: January 31, 2006 8:50 AM | Permalink to Trackback