Are Readers Important To Authors? - 0 views
started by Henriksen Ibsen on 05 Dec 13
started by Henriksen Ibsen on 05 Dec 13
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Bestselling authors speak of their fans in nearly reverential tones, as properly they ought to. A loyal readership that comes back for much more, book after book, is the real crucial to long-term publishing good results. Savvy authors work diligently to create excellent function that will continue to please their audience, but numerous of them also communicate straight to their fans. Authors net internet sites are all the rage, some of them fairly elaborately made.
Fauzia Burke is the founder and President of FSB Associates, http://www.fsbassciates.com. Her organization specializes in publicity using the Internet and author websites.
We asked Fauzia: What is the most uncommon publicity system you've created? Had been proud of our potential to harness all the energy of the Internet in the service of authors and their books, and have been specially committed to producing the online presence match the project.
Here are some examples: Our internet site for Doug Stantons In Harms Way goes beyond words and photos to consist of audio interviews with survivors of the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis, video clips of the actual rescue at sea, and a discussion board. Our campaign introduced the book to numerous audiences, from Globe War II vets and history buffs, to college and high college students.
For Christopher Rices supernatural thriller A Density Of Souls, we employed animation and graphics to create an on-line gathering location that echoes the eerie atmosphere of the book, and added exclusive material like a virtual yearbook from the New Orleans higher school of the story, and back-story on the characters. We even helped promote Chris's look on MTV's True Planet.
We utilized cutting-edge animated maps in our web site for Rick Atkinsons Pulitzer Prize winner An Army At Dawn, to illustrate essential points in the Allied assault on German-held North Africa in 1942-43. Animation helps bring alive our site for Tony Horwitzs Blue Latitudes, combining a sea chart that traces the voyages of Captain Cook with excerpts from corresponding passages in the book.
But we dont use bells and whistles for their own sake. Our site for Mitch Alboms novel The Five People You Meet In Heaven known as for a easier method that lets the warm story and the superb writing take center stage. Since this is the kind of book individuals adore to share, theres an e-postcard that fans can send to their buddies. There are teaching guides, and reading group materials, and a Q&A with Mitch. And for the Spanish edition of the book, weve developed a Spanish-language site that will help broaden the audience even far more.
For all these books, we also waged word-of-mouth campaigns developed to attract focus, web site traffic and media coverage. In the end, these coordinated efforts created the most satisfying of all results sales.
Quite a handful of author sites are just storefronts whose significant goal is to sell books. Other individuals have a significantly much more intimate feel, inviting guests to: Come on in and meet me. Remain and chat. With all the other pressures on their time, why do bestselling authors go to the problems of answering fan e-mail, or posting responses to message boards on their web sites, and continually upgrading them with information about their new project or where they will be appearing?
Nicholas Sparks, www.nicholassparks.com, whose very first book, The Notebook set a new regular for romance, answers the question: You interact with your fans far more that several authors do. Your internet internet site is especially interactive, with message boards and an e-mail address for fans to attain you. Why did you take this method? Men and women have so a lot of concerns about my novels or want to know about me, and there's a lot of misinformation out there. I wanted to have the appropriate answers put up where readers could very easily access them. The internet site is a way to make certain the truth is receiving out there. For instance, the query, Where did I get the notion for The Notebook? If I say it was inspired by my wife's grandparents, this is extremely considerably the truth, but not a lot details. Readers want to know far more: How was it inspired? In what way? How did that entire thought procedure perform? So I explained the complete scenario so the readers realize.
Does that interaction encourage the word of mouth buzz about your books? Perhaps a little. But not every person cares about what an author's life is like. They just want to read a excellent book.
Anna Jacobs, http://www.annajacobs.com, has written 29 novels, mainly historical sagas and romances. She resides in Australia, her major publisher is in the United Kingdom and her books are sold worldwide including the United States.
We asked Anna: Romance authors appear to have a a lot more personal connection with their fans, interacting with them on net web sites, message boards, Net chats, book readings. Why is that? What does an author discover from this interaction that assists her with her function? I am not confident it is just romance authors. I consider it's a woman's strategy. I take place to think that if you place something back into the universe it will bring great karma. Or as my daughter puts it: What goes around, comes around. But I also preserve in touch with readers because if you can 'attach' readers as well as writing good books (the latter is the prime pre-requisite) they go out and talk about your books to other individuals.
I discover a lot from readers' emails about what has specifically pleased them. That does not hurt. Also writing is a extremely solitary activity, so it is nice to be in touch with others. And we all want feedback and praise. I'm as human as any other. I adore to hear that an individual has enjoyed my books. It's significantly far more enjoyable than sales figures.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, www.susanelizabethphillips.com, is the only 5-time winner of the Romance Writers of America Preferred Book of the Year Award inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame, 2001 pioneered, and some say, perfected the romantic comedy school of fiction. writes with a touch of humor. We asked Susan: You seem to interact quite a bit with your readers by way of your web site. You even mentioned there were several categories of fans you have, those who appreciate the humor in your books and these who are more attuned to what takes place to the characters. How does the fan interaction shape your writing? I adore my readers, but I do my very best not to let their comments shape my writing in any way. About ten years ago, the light finally went off in my brain and I truly understood that every book I wrote would be somebody's preferred and somebodys least favourite, that everyone in the world (gasp) wasn't going to like my books. This was intensely liberating. It told me that to do my very best perform I concentrate only on pleasing myself. Genuinely the biggest Aha Moment of my profession.
Its not only romance authors that have their own web site, Stuart Woods, http://www.stuartwoods.com, writes difficult hitting mysteries and has been on the New York Times Bestseller list several times.
Stuart answers the query: You are one of the bestselling authors who routinely corresponds with readers via e-mail, why? It gives me a direct sort of feedback. I get a sense that what Im doing is the correct thing to do. Ive never ever created any changes in what I do simply because of what Ive heard from readers. The vast preponderance of individuals enjoy the books and create to inform me so.
And its not just the household name authors who value their readers.
Lydia Joyces, www.lydiajoyce.com, most current book is The Veil of Evening an intense, sensual remaking of the Gothic genre, with a mysterious Duke, a crumbling manor, and an older heroine with her own secrets to hide.
Lydia told us: To be completely crass, if I didn't have fans, I could not make income. And if I could not make cash, writing would be a hobby, not a job!
But fans are important to me for far more than monetary causes. My desire to turn out to be a writer started with the ghost stories I utilized to inform about Girl Scouts campfires. I loved how I could affect other individuals, how I could thrill them, excite them, and make them care about the individuals in my tales. The pleasure that other individuals get from my storytelling is a key motivator for me. If it weren't for that, I could be perfectly happy to leave my stories in my head where they began.
Lynne Connolly is the author of the Richard and Rose series of books, romantic suspense novels set in the mid eighteenth century. Her newest book, "Harley Street" came out in March, and pits the new Lord and Lady Strang against their deadly enemies, Julia and Steven Drury in a tale of old transgressions come to test new found enjoy.
We asked Lynne: Why are your fans critical to you as an author? They validate my perform, inform me that I'm on the correct track. Fans are not unthinking admirers, and can often give you details you never had ahead of. Their encouragement keeps me going, and presenting my operate to publishers and agents with self-assurance. Economically, they acquire the books, making it feasible for me to create more and for my publisher to continue having self-confidence in me. I sit at property all day on my own with a keyboard for organization. Fans connect me, aid me to preserve on target. And a fan is a reader. They full the link, the communication between writer and reader.
Marjorie Joness, www.majoriejones.com, The Jewel and the Sword was just released by Medallion Press. Dig up further on agen sbobet by browsing our majestic paper. She tells us fans are crucial to her since For me, fans are the finish-all-be-all of the writing encounter. Finishing a book is a terrific feeling. Selling that book to a publisher is an remarkable feeling. Getting that book accepted by the reading public is greater than each! Why are they critical? Simply because without them, my stories would float indefinitely inside the walls of my hard-drive. No purpose. No cause for becoming. Fans give the stories life.
Take a handful of minutes this summer season and discover out a small bit much more about your favored author. If you truly enjoyed their last book, let them know. They would like to hear from you.