Tuesday, March 15, 2011

You're THAT Joan Meijer?

Some weeks ago I read about emergingnovelists.com the site for people like me - emerging. Writers who are starting out in one field or another and who would like people to know about their books. My new book is "Tranquillity Initiative" a medical thriller about an anthrax attack on New York City which is getting really good reviews.

I contacted the site and asked how I could get covered. As I have been saying in my blogs, self-promotion is what getting published is all about today. Mike contacted me right back and the announcement of my book and the interview is the result.

The announcement and clips from my reviews came first. Mike has a great template that makes it easy for someone like me to organize my material. I was asked for my bio.... three or four of the best clips from my reviews and a short run down about the book. Those things are very handy to have in your files if you're going to promote a book anyway, so his asking for them made me very aware of what I needed to write.

Next Mike asked me for interview questions. I wrote 13 of them - and answered them and he selected the ones he liked. It's increasingly fun to be interviewed because I discover things I about my writing that came naturally and that I hadn't actually thought through as technique during the process.

The interview was posted today.

If you are a beginning writer be prepared to talk about yourself as you have never talked before. As the family introvert, I have spent my life walking behind my self-promoting mother and sister wondering how they do it. When I was a teenager my mother, Bonnie Prudden, was very famous for having conducted a physical fitness test which resulted in the formation of The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Within 30 seconds of meeting someone she would have them down on the floor to be tested - and I would be pretending I came with someone else. My sister Suzy Prudden has never missed an opportunity to get up on a stage and I've been in the back of the room selling our books and product. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard Suzy say, "I'm famous...." and fully a third of a room full of people will have indeed heard of her... "You're THAT Suzy Prudden?"

I'm not at the stage of "You're THAT Joan Meijer" yet, but I walk into rooms announcing myself as a novelist now instead of sitting in my chair wondering if I should say something. I contact people who might interview me regularly. And the great surprise for me is how much I'm enjoying it.

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