Carol Hoenig – Planning for Successful Book Events

On Feburary 19th, 2009 Alan E. Smith (author of UnBreak Your Health) and Tyler Tichelaar (author of the Marquette Trilogy) spoke with Carol Hoenig, fiction writer and book event expert, about how to plan a successful book sales event.  Carol is the expert behind the new book The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events and shared generously from her hard-won experiences.Rarely do authors think about book events until they have found a publisher. However, part of being able to snag a publisher is knowing your market. Most authors immediately think they should do events in bookstores, but they ae not always the best place to do an event. Every writer who wants to have a successful book has to start first with good writing and a marketing plan. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been traditionally published or gone the r
oute of self-publishing, the author must take a hands-on approach in marketing their book.

Carol Hoenig

Carol Hoenig is a fulltime freelance writer and publishing consultant. Her
novel, WITHOUT GRACE, has been given several awards, including the Silver Medal for Book of the Year 2005 by ForeWord Magazine and given First Place for
Fiction by the DIY Book Festival. Her book THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO PLANNING BOOK EVENTS was named finalist by USA Book and Reader Views and given the Gold medal by ForeWord Magazine for Book of the Year in the category of writing. Carol’s essays, articles, book reviews and short stories appear in a wide number of publications. Carol blogs for The Huffington Post covering politics, culture, the publishing industry and the writing life.

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Clay Campbell – Twelve Steps to a Better Website

On February 5TH, 2009 Irene Watson and Tyler Tichelaar spoke with Clay Campbell, an expert on business website design. He “helps small business owners make more money and have more fun.”  He is the author of two books  Get Big Results from Your Small Ad Budget and 12 Steps to a Better Website. Clay shared with us key concepts for success including how to choose a domain name, planning content, budgeting, naming the pages/sections of your site, design issues, customer relationships, ranking, maintenance, promotion, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and site submission.
In his autobiography, Guitars Bars and A Prodigal Son, Clay talks about living the life of a hobo. As a 16 year old he took a trip “off to see the world.” He hitchhiked to California from his daddy’s farm in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. He slept under bridges, hopped a rides on boxcars, “sang for his supper’ many times and “almost froze to death” in the Rocky Mountains.Clay began a career in advertising in 1983 in phone book advertising sales. In 1989 he started his own small shopper/coupon paper called the Ad Sheet in Paducah Kentucky. After five years and great success he sold it. In November 2000, he began a career in radio with Bristol Broadcasting which lead him to meeting The Wizard of Ads himself; Roy H. Williams.Clay found most small business owners were unsatisfied with the results of their advertising investment. They wanted and needed more bang for their marketing buck. Finding a need and filling it; Clay became a wordsmith and a professional writer of creative ad campaigns.

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Lynda Goldman – Turn that Book into a Course or Workshop!

On January 22nd, 2009, Irene Watson spoke with Lynda Goldman on how to turn a non-fiction book into a course or workshop. Lynda shared key answers with us including benefits of turning a course into a book, how/where to sell the course, other revenue streams, what does it take to create the course and how much will it cost me? Lynda Goldman is the author of 31 books, including textbooks and business books for major publishers such as Prentice Hall, Houghton-Mifflin, and Oxford University Press. As well, she ghostwrites books for busy industry leaders, and is currently ghostwriting three different business books.
She also has 15 years of experience in creating training programs and seminars on business topics such as selling skills, business etiquette, cross-cultural communication, and leadership. Along with these courses, she has created more than 75 instructor’s manuals and participant workbooks.

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Janet Muirhead Hill – Writing True Fiction

On Thursday, January 8th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Janet Muirhead Hill, a children’s author and writing coach about True Fiction. Janet is the author of eight published True Fiction novels for young readers. Additionally she is a publisher, speaker, and writing workshop leader. She educated us on what True Fiction is and how it differs from popular escapist fiction. The keys lie in the emotional lives of the characters and choosing a character-driven approach (rather than plot-driven). We learned how writers can draw on their own past experiences as part of the driving creative process emotionally. Janet Muirhead Hill
When Janet, grew up on a cattle ranch in the Yampa River Valley in the Colorado Rockies, her greatest love was for horses and children. Her childhood dreams were not to become a writer or publisher, but to own a horse ranch and to have lots of kids. Janet began her writing career when her children were small by submitting short stories to magazines and had several published. Her 3rd novel Miranda and Starlight, began a series of six books, all published within a three year period by her own company, Raven Publishing, which publishes other authors as well. She has published another novel she wrote called, Danny’s Dragon. It is about the stages of grief and healing, seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy who lost his father in the war. A newly released book, Kyleah’s Tree, is the beginning of a trilogy about twins that were separated at 4 years of age by divorce.Janet’s education has included several years at Montana State Univer
sity in various disciplines, including English writing. She also completed two writing courses, (two years each) from the Children’s Institute of Literature. She presently divides her time between publishing, family, and writing, from rural Montana where she lives with her husband. She also presents interactive workshops on “Writing True Fiction and other genres”
Kyleah's Tree

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Irene and Victor talk about new Authors Access book

Today Tyler R. Tichelaar is pleased to interview Irene Watson and Victor Volkman, his co-editors of the new book Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers.

Irene Watson is an author, entrepreneur, and former therapist and educator. She currently is the owner and Managing Editor of Reader Views, Reader Views Kids, and Inside Scoop Live, and a co-host on Authors Access Internet Radio. Irene holds her Master’s Degree from Regis University in Denver, CO and a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. She is the president of Higher Power Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to awarding scholarships to people seeking recovery. Irene’s expertise in the publishing industry comes from being an author herself as well as managing an online book review service. Reader Views offers book reviews, author publicity, and many other elements needed by authors and writers. Irene also coaches authors to write book proposals and is a literary agent. Irene lives with her husband in Austin, Texas. Her memoir “The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference” is currently in its second edition
.

Victor R. Volkman began his writing career in the late 1980s writing for computer programming journals such as “Windows Developer’s Journal” as well as original books on the programming. Loving Healing Press, founded in 2003, has published dozens of cutting-edge books that promote its mission of “redefining what is possible for healing mind and spirit.” As such, he has produced a series of books on Traumatic Incident Reduction as well as empowering other authors in a wide range of helping areas including trauma recovery, self-esteem, physical disabilities, sexual abuse recovery, and much more. He has produced and edited more than 200 podcasts for “Authors Access” and a variety of other author-related shows. In 2007, LHP spun off a new imprint Modern History Press dedicated to empowering authors to speak about surviving conflict and seeking identity in modern times. When not publish
ing, he enjoys spending time with his wife Marian K. Volkman, a formidable author in her own right.

Tyler: Welcome, Victor and Irene. I’m very excited to interview both of you today, and of course, I was honored to work with both of you since we are the three editors of “Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers.” However, both the Internet Radio Show and the book based on the program were the brain-child of the two of you, so it’s fitting I sit back and listen to the two of you discuss what you initially envisioned for the program and why you chose to turn the radio interviews into a book on publishing and writing. So let’s get started. To begin, will you give us a little history of how the radio show Authors Access began and what were its initial goals?

Irene: Victor and I met nearly 3 years ago through Reader Views. He, being a publisher, submitted books to us for review. Through this connection we came up with the idea of interviewing experts in the field of publishing. Because of Reader Views, I already knew many experts and how to contact them. Victor’s expertise in mixing and publishing podcasts made us a great team. Our initial goal was to give an opportunity for experts to share their information with writers who wanted to self-publish their books. Over the past two years, Authors Access just kept evolving. As to where it goes from here, we don’t know. However, I do know we are picking up new listeners every week. We get about 1000 global listeners on a weekly basis.

Tyler: What led to the decision to produce a book based on the podcast interviews. How did the book develop and how did you choose which people would contribute? Continue reading

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