All posts tagged: book launch

Write on, Wednesday! Do’s and Don’t of Fiction Platforms

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By Leslie Lindsay You hear all the time, “build your platform!”  But what exactly is a platform, you say?!  Well, the terminology, platform comes from the theater in which the presentor/entertainer (that’s you, the author) is on the stage, while your “audience” (readers) are on the sidelines.  It generally means you have a place to promote your work; that is–readers who care.  Every writer will have a different strategy to developing his or her platform–it all depends on your personality, your goals as a writer, and often the types of writing you do.  Here’s a list of do’s and don’t for fiction platforms (but I think you can translate many of these to non-fiction as well).  This is literally a clipping from a Writer’s Digest magazine…but don’t ask what issue.  It’s been tacked to my real-life bulletin board over my desk for awhile now. WHAT WORKS: 1.  Local publicity; especially if you live where your novel is set (DOESN’T WORK:  mass snail maillings) 2.  Book giveaways (DOESN’T WORK:  Non-book [swag] giveaways) 3.  Wide-reaching blog tour …

Write on Wednesday: Give me a Publicist!!

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By Leslie Lindsay Be careful what you ask for: you just may get it.  I have wanted to be a writer all my life.  Or, more like the writer in me has been trying to get all out all of my life!  It finally has broken free.  And with that you’d think I would be walking on air, alas I am not.  I feel stuck, stagnant, and a little bit crazy. Let me explain.  It’s hard work being a writer.  You have deadlines, you have life. You have ideas and creativity that hit you out of the blue.  At inopportune times.  At the mall.  With your in-laws (and outlaws.  In the car.  In the school pick-up line.  You get emails all the time.  You can’t respond to them like you want to.  Your kids want your attention, and your hound wants a walk but  you must stick your nose in that stupid laptop once again. And then you realize you are more than a writer.  You also need to wear the “publicist” hat, and the “stylist” hat …

In My Brain Today: My Desk

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By Leslie Lindsay I love my desk.  I purchased it at Sam’s Club right out of college.  It was with me at my first “big girl” apartment in Rochester, Minnesota where I was an R.N. at the Mayo Clinic.  I started writing my memoir on it.  (Ha–do you find that sort of ironic?  Writing a memoir at the ripe ‘ol age of 23?  Well, for those of you who know me personally, you’ll know I have plenty of memoir material). Not only that, but I have penned my first book at this desk (in combination with various coffee shop tables).  It has meaning to me.  It is worn in the area where my right (write?) wrist rests and rubs along the desk.  I has seen many moments–happy ones and sad ones and perhaps a tear or two, maybe a bang of fist. I love that my hound is lying content on the floor, grunting here and there as she sleeps a deep dog sleep, sometimes running her stubby legs in fast succession as though she …

Write on, Wednesday! Planning a Book Launch Party

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By Leslie Lindsay The best part of writing a book…is planning a launch party.  (Do you have that Folger’s coffee commercial jingle running through your head?  No?  Well, try reading that first statement again).  Seriously.  I am so ready to celebrate!  After nearly 4+ years of writing a book about an obscure and very “gray” motor-neurological speech disorder (childhood apraxia of speech), I am about ready to spontaneously combust into tiny pieces of matter.  Oh wait—uh, that would be the confetti floating around the party venue with a pop of a cork and not me.  I have other books to write, after all.  It would be no good if I combusted.  Hummm…. So, I digress.  A book launch is a fun, happy, celebratory time in which one who has written gets to show-off what she has been doing for the last 4+ years she has been holed away eating carbs and downing her misery in turtle mochas at Caribou.  It’s a time to share the accomplishment and promote the new book…’cause if people don’t know …