How To Write A Good Book Quickly

                                                           
                                                              By Trina Boice
                                                         http://www.boicebox.com/

Are you working on a book?  If so, check out this short video with tips for writing a good book quickly:
http://www.yourquantumleap.com/bookwritingtips.htm


In his video, Steve Harrison, expert book promoter and author coach, shares seven tips that'll help you easily break through the roadblocks that stop you from getting your book out now including:

* The single most important concept which separates a great book (and great selling book!) from a poor book.

* How you can emulate other successful writers to create your own bestseller.

* The biggest mistakes authors make in the writing process that really slow them down.

* The one, simple, easy and FAST technique which you can use TODAY to write your book.

* The one personality trait, shared by many authors, which really sabotages them.

In addition to his Quantum Leap program, Steve Harrison also publishes the Radio-TV Interview Report, which has become a bible for talk-show hosts and producers looking for interesting people to interview.  Growing out of the industry contacts he’s built up through the Report is Steve’s annual National Publicity Summit, where writers can brush shoulders with many of the gatekeepers in the talk-show industry.

I discovered Steve Harrison several months ago and really love his teleseminars.  Great material for authors!
Check him out!

By the way, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of you wonderful moms out there who inspire our writing dreams!  We love you!

Trina

Going Viral. Or Not.

A dozen years ago, I had an experience that I fear skewed my perception of normal when it comes to generating publicity. Some of you may even remember this event.

Three of my sisters were all pregnant at the same time, with due dates spread over a span of eight weeks. This was the cause of some confusion early on a winter's morning when one sister called my mom and, in a pinched, mid-contraction voice said, "My water broke and I'm on my way to the hospital."

My mom's reply was, "Who is this?" It turns out it was the oldest sister, and the one farthest from her due date. The baby came quickly.

Sister number two visited the new baby on the way to her own OB appointment in the same hospital. The OB sent her back to the maternity ward, announcing that she was significantly dilated, and within hours the second baby was born.

The excitement of two cousins being born in the same morning and at the same hospital was a lot of fun, but it was also very difficult for sister number three, as she was "the most pregnant" and the only one actually due. Exhausted, she went to bed early and cried herself to sleep, only to be awakened by contractions a few hours later. Before the night was over, the third cousin had been born.

I thought this was all pretty cool, and so the next day at work I filled in an online tip form at the Associated Press website. This one simple act set off a firestorm of interest, resulting in calls from news organizations as far away as Germany and Japan, articles in People magazine, and an appearance on Oprah.

Yes, my sisters and their babies were on Oprah. And it all started with a single email.

When Bumpy Landings was released earlier this year, I knew that it was nothing as exciting as three sisters giving birth on the same day, and I had no delusions of getting a call from Oprah. However, I will admit that, in the back of my mind, I expected a similarly smooth (albeit much less grand) path to popularity.

After all, my book had a fun hook, an exotic location, and two unique book trailers. Which I have gratuitously posted below. Because I can.

However, I'm finding the skids aren't so easily greased for a niche-market novel as they are for multiple births, and this whole book marketing thing is lot more effort than I imagined. Months after release, and despite positive reviews and concerted personal effort, many independent LDS bookstores haven't heard of me or my book. Even employees at bookstores that do carry Bumpy Landings right there on the shelf claim they have never heard of it.

The road out of obscurity is steep, and I fear it might be a long one.

Of course, I haven't ruled out the possibility that I used up all of my publicity karma back in 1998.

Perhaps it only works when somebody else fills out the form.

Or maybe, just maybe, the universe is determined to keep me from the public eye. After all had those three babies come just one day earlier, they would have been born on my 30th birthday.

And then I could have been on Oprah, too.

New advances along the journey

By Heather Justesen

Lots of fun and exciting things going on in my end of the world. I just got notice that my author's copies of "The Ball's in Her Court" shipped to me from the warehouse today so I'm going to be jumping every time the front door opens at work on Monday wondering if it's the UPS guy.

I've set up a big book launch at my hometown library on Saturday the 24th, then realized today was the deadline for getting the advertising in the paper this next week, so my notice there I'll only appear three days before the event! But I'll spend some serious time that week hanging up signs and passing out postcards with my cute book cover on front and the party details on back (if anyone reading this is going to be near Fillmore that day and wants to come, by all means--we'll have giveaways and refreshments and lots of fun. 10 am to 1 pm.

I've also gotten hooked up for a signing in Sandy at the Barnes & Noble at the South Town Mall on November 7th--where I'll be signing with Aubrey Mace, Linda Chadwick, and Ronda Hinrichsen.

And November 20th I'll be at Confetti Books and Antiques in Spanish Fork for their celebration, though I don't know who all will be signing with me that day.

And December 5th I'll be signing at Barnes and Noble in Orem along with a bunch of other authors.

Oh, yeah, Tristi Pinkston and I are signing at a holiday boutique in Salt Lake on November 14th too...

All of the details for all of these signings will definitely be posted on my website and blog as they get closer.

It's really rather exciting, but writing the list of everything I still need to do reminded me of a dozen other details I need to iron out in preparation (besides digging out the room my friend Danyelle is going to sleep in when she flies into Utah for the first party--she's awesome, I know).

The point of this post (besides total celebration) is that when I first thought I wanted to be a writer I didn't take into account the fact that there would be promotional stuff to do as well, or that it would take up so much of my writing time. All of the arrangements that have to be made between now and the next couple of weeks seem overwhelming, but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to everything too.

This is all totally out of my comfort zone and normal behavior (I'm usually pretty introverted and hermit-like), but I look forward to the opportunity to meet people and grow into something more than I am right now--and hopefully if any of you see me at my table you'll take a moment to swing by and say hello, even if you only read sci-fi or westerns and wouldn't pick up a romance on a bet. =)