Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

"Hey all - sorry about this hiatus I'm taking, I have to crack out the next book mighty quick, and it's like chewing tacks in the sweltering sun while having someone serenade you with fingernails on chalkboards."

That's a little slice of the writing life straight from the MySpace blog of novelist Heather McElhatton. She just finished her choose-your-own adventure book for adults, Pretty Little Mistakes, and she's already being hounded by the publishers for another.

McElhatton keeps close tabs on her readers on the blog, asking for research help, sharing stories, and generally just sharing with her growing readership.

She's our special guest this week, and today she explains how blogging and online promotions helped her writing career.

Welcome to my 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 writing. 

Jason Boog:

You have a webpage, Myspace page, and some interesting web promotions for your book. How did you establish these links to your readers, and how to you keep them interacting with you? What are the websites/web resources you like to read, and why?

Heather McElhatton:

I like maintaining my own webpage and Myspace page because I get a better feeling for the people reading my book. Continue reading...

I don't think you can publish a book without a website these days. It's essential.
 
The other promotional stuff we did was mostly born from the publicists at HarperCollins, who are very good at thinking up new marketing ideas, which is unusual for a publisher.
 
I keep my readers interacting with me because I usually say something stupid, enraging or incorrect on my blog, and they take the time to lovingly re-direct me.

Click here to read the whole Heather McElhatton interview.

Scroll down the archive to read more. If the layout confuses you, check out the Five Easy Questions FAQ for more information.