Category Archives: Fiction
On January 19th, 2012 Susan Violante and Victor R. Volkman spoke with award-winning children’s author, marketing expert, and entrepreneur Ellen Feld about how to target-market your children”s books. Her first book, Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse, went on to win a coveted “Children’s Choices” award, co-sponsored by The International Reading Association and The Children’s Book Council. The book was then picked up by an international toy company and packaged with a toy horse made to resemble Blackjack, the star of the series. Blackjack continues to sell well and to date has sold over 30,000 copies. Ellen shared her lessons learned and hard won experience with us on a variety of topics including:
- on-line advertising: where/when it works/doesn’t work
- Selling at regional events, shows, and other public venues outside the bookstore
- Why you need to think in terms of a series
- Importance of author selling/marketing, the personal touch
- Book signings – what works, what to have at your booth
- Finding and keeping an illustrator
- Cultivating your reputation as an expert
- The importance of professional help with your project.
|
 Ellen Feld with Annie |
| Award-winning author Ellen Feld began writing about horses more than twenty years ago. Her first writing jobs were for horse magazines. At first, she wrote for small, regional publications, but within a few short years her work began to appear regularly in large, national publications. Her articles have appeared in publications such as The Morgan Horse, Stable Management, Equestrian, Young Rider, Just About Horses, Horsemen’s Yankee Pedlar, Tri-State Horse, and The Appaloosa Journal.One day, back in 2001, while waiting for her next assignment to come in, Ellen wrote a short story about a Morgan Horse. Several of her friends encouraged her to expand on the story and try writing a book. That short story became the first chapter of “Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse.” |
 Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse |
On September 16th, 2010 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with author, social worker, and busy mom Valerie Bradley-Holliday, PhD. Valerie’s doctorate degree is from The Union Institute and University, a distance-learning program based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her specialization is Social Psychology. She has a Master of Social Work Degree from Wayne State University. Valerie shared with us critical items to success as a writer and working mom:
- Time management: keeping it all together
- Respect for yourself and your craft as an artist
- Professionalism and its importance in producing quality products
- Dealing with frustrations and setbacks
- Accepting success and being prepared to act on it
- Self-publishing perils and benefits of using it.
|
 Valerie Bradley-Holliday |
| Valerie has a husband, three sons and three adopted dogs. She has two published books (Places to Be Blessed and Northern Roots) and third book (Elmwood) is in progress. Her first love is writing. She writes like some people eat popcorn. Her varying interests include: art, singing, gardening, and reading. After being raised by her grandmother, Valerie put herself through undergraduate school by working as a kitchen helper and a certified nurse’s aide. She has taught several classes in her field at the graduate level, later served as an adjunct professor at Northern Michigan University and currently serves as an adjunct for online universities. As an active member of the National Association of Social Workers, she received credentialing for the Academy of Clinical Social Workers. Her professional experience includes working with domestic violence victims and facilitating related support groups. Valerie has also worked as a career counselor at Soumi College (now known as Finlandia University) in Hancock, Michigan. She counseled abused and neglected children and their families in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Valerie is currently working on a book about Elmwood, an African American Community that was located near Crystal Falls in the Paint River area. |
 Places To Be Blessed |
| On December 5th, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman interviewed author and editor Debbie Herald on writing for the erotic romance marketplace. Debbie Herald is an author and Editor currently working for Lyrical Press. Her two most recent books are Perfect Game and Sweet Dreams, available from BookStrand paperback and on Amazon Kindle formats under the pseudonymn Jordana Ryan. Among questions which Debbie answered for us were
What makes a good erotic romance?
What is the difference between erotic romance and pornography?
pseudonymns
If a writer uses naughty words does that automatically make it erotic romance?
If you write erotic romance can you branch out to difference sub genres with success?
What makes erotic romance so highly successful in epublishing?
Is there a standard for how much sex should go into an erotic romance?
As an editor what do you like to see in a sex scene?
What pushes the boundaries if anything in erotic romance?
|
 |
| Debbie has enjoyed the written word since she was a child and takes a specific liking to Contemporary and Historical romance. Debbie enjoys working with authors to polish their work and see it through to publication. When not writing or editing she can often be found cooking, with her friends, or with her young child doing any number of things. |
 |
On August 20th, 2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with book marketing guru Irene Watson on the importance of considering target reader personas in the book writing process. Irene is the owner of Reader Views, a full-service book reviewing and marketing agency in Austin, TX. Irene’s psychology background and constant study gives her the ability to understand people and how they think, live, and for today’s interview, how they read. Some of the things we considered:
- Importance of knowing your target market before writing your book
- Understanding reading preferences, temperments and personalities of potential readers
- Creating a profile of the potential readers/target market
- Fully understanding why some readers like your book and others don’t.
|
 |
| Irene’s career took her from career counseling, to business ownership, to working for a police force, to psychosynthesis counseling, to teaching at a college, to retreat/seminar/workshop design and facilitation to her most recent – owning/managing Reader Views and its branches. She obtained her B.S. in psychology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX and her M. A. in psychology from Regis University in Denver, CO.After retiring in 2003 Irene authored an award winning memoir, The Sitting Swing, which was originally published in 2005. Having a hard time getting reviews for her book, she started Reader Views on a whim. Within a month it exploded to a full time business. So much for retirement! Since then she has pioneered many other innovative marketing sites including Inside Scoop Live, ReviewThe Book, BloggingAuthors, and many other services from press release writing to book videos to an international award contest now entering its 4th year. |
|
