A writer, reloaded

Is at E.J. Stevens From the Shadows, in a guest post on being Jersey.

In my haze, I overlooked an interview that appeared Friday at Book Lovers Inc. Much thanks to Larissa.

Day 1, virtual tour stop, Paperback Writer Seven Reasons to read The Last Track

Sorry for the silence around here lately. Failed absolutely in anticipating how long responding to the interview and guest post requests for the virtual tour could take. And even though a number still want for answers, the light of completion awaits.

I think the fun with the virtual tour begins tomorrow? Must ask the marketing critter.

Anyway, there will be some new content soon; there’s already a number of new reviews that came in recently. Like before, rather than posting each time new items appear somewhere on the Internets, just check the Interviews section; I’ll try and keep up with the frenzy ( I just like that word ) and mention them at random moments.

The publisher set up a virtual book tour for June. Did not know such a thing existed until several days ago, but the mechanism gets the book in front of more readers, all through the magic of the Internets. Anything that means chilling in an air conditioned office, I like. Although I avoid shorts–and the sun in general–I do enjoy a room filled with Freon chilled air.

The tour runs two months. Interviews and reviews will appear at all kinds of sites and places. In preparation for this fiesta of Last Track promotion, I have a dozen documents to review and many answers to prepare. Oh and another book to write, but that’s a different discussion.

More details will follow once I get out from under this “paper work.”

Had fun Friday with the writing workshop. After a short presentation on the principles of characterization and why it matters, I tasked the group with a character building exercise, which forced them to learn about their character by interviewing them. And they had to answer the question in their character’s voice.

The only restriction: no wizards, werewolves or vegetarian vampires. I was impressed at the large number of students who not only answered the challenge, but also took it to the next level and sketched a back story accounting for their new characters motivations.

A very sweet moment: they knew about one of the greatest characters in fiction, Hannibal Lecter. That and they watched Glee.

Really, what else matters?

As part of Blogmania, the Cajun Book Lady featured an interview with me about The Last Track which ties into a giveaway.

Read the interview and take a chance ( NOTE: Contest last one day only April 30, 2010 )

Also, at 1PM today, leading a workshop on character creation for a group of high school students. By the end, they will have some new tools for building more credible and memorable characters. If I do my job right, that is.

Several  people asked me how The Last Track is selling. The short answer: check back in August. That will be the six month anniversary, and will follow some nice promotions the publisher arranged in June and July. I have not asked for sales figures for a reason.

Six months after the release is a good point to take stock of where things are. At a large publisher, a new title  gets about three weeks to grow legs and walk. If the title isn’t shipping a month after the drop date, the promotion basically ends. At ninety days, the returns start, so even if sales did pick up after the promotion faded into memory, the book has to fight upstream just to break even. And that’s a long hard walk, I’ve been told.

This is one of the reasons I’m fine with being at a small publisher. Less titles means more focus. If I learned anything in martial arts, its that when the smaller opponent fights their fight, instead of the larger opponents, mutes any advantage in size.

But I do know we moved past the friends and family point. There’s questions about the book coming in from people that read it and started following me on Twitter or reading the site, and I don’t know who they are. Perhaps they were lurking quietly all along, but something prompted them to write as of late.

Any way, for those interested, some tour announcements and interviews will follow shortly.

In the meantime, have a cupcake.