WOW!: Kathleen, I've known you for a long time and I'm flattered you chose WOW!, but can you give readers some insight as to what helped make this choice a good fit for you and Ever Faithful To His Lead?
Kathleen: Writing can be a very lonely endeavor and marketing, a daunting task. Since most of us are not celebrities, we all need a little help from our friends, especially when it comes to getting the word out about our work. I feel strongly that we need to support one another and have been participating in Wow Blog Tours for other writers for the past several years. I trust the professionalism and support of the Wow staff so when it came time to market my memoir, it was an easy decision. As an aside, I had conducted my own virtual blog tour right after my memoir was published and gained a new appreciation for all the work involved it pulling off a successful tour. I wanted to extend my reach beyond my blog and I wanted professional assistance in the organization and delivery of the tour.
WOW!: Glad to help extend your reach and you certainly had a lot of interest in your tour. Your connections helped make my job easier. What tips do you give upcoming touring authors?
Kathleen:
1. Take ownership in your own tour: This is your chance to meet new readers and you want to give them a reason to host your tour. Generate a list of interesting topics to address related to your book and your work.
2. Prepare for your tour: I started planning about six months before the actual tour date. The Wow staff provides excellent support throughout the entire process so you have a partner to help get you started and keep you on track.
3. Expect to work hard: You will get out of the tour what you put into it. That sounds obvious, but I found being aware of the level of commitment required ahead of time helped me stay the course.
4. Have a plan for announcing and sharing on social media (without sounding spammy). Remember, this is a media blitz and you want to keep the momentum going without boring or annoying your audience. My best advice in relation to this is to try to be creative in how you share and present each stop on the tour.
5. Watch your manners; If someone is gracious enough to host your tour, be sure to recognize and thank them. Show up at each stop and respond to comments. This is a party in honor of your book and you need to show up and do your part to keep the conversation going.
WOW!: Those are fabulous tips and now I see why your tour has been so smooth. Thank you especially for the pre-work and ownership! Which stop has been your favorite or which are you most looking forward to and why?
Kathleen: That’s a tough question because I enjoyed all my stops from longtime members of my memoir community and from new friends who represent new and different audiences. Overall, I think the best part of the tour has been connecting with new friends from both arenas. These are people I never would have met had I not participated in the tour. And isn’t that what matters the most—making meaningful connections one person at a time. At this point I have no idea what direct impact the tour has had on book sales. It is probably too soon to tell. But I can tell you, from my point of view, it has been a success in increasing exposure to new audiences and in keeping the conversation going about my memoir.
WOW!: Thank you again for choosing WOW! This has been a pleasure from the word Go!
Ever Faithful To His Lead : My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse is a memoir, a true life tears to triumph story of self-defeating detours and dreams lost and found.
A young woman who loses sight of the faith she has been brought up with attempts to find her way in the world, rejecting her stable roots in lieu of finding adventure and romance. Despite periods of spiritual renewal in which she receives a prophecy, she slides back, taking several self-defeating detours that take her through a series of heartbreaking events.
When Kathy's second husband, Dan's verbal abuse escalates, Kathy finally realizes she must move on before she and her children become a statistic.
How does a young woman who came from a stable, loving family make so many wise choices when it came to career, but so many wrong choices when it came to love, so that she ended up sacrificing career and having to flee in broad daylight with her children from an abusive marriage? What is getting in her way and why does she keep taking so many self-defeating detours?
The story opens up the day Kathy feels physically threatened for the first time in her three-year marriage to her second husband. This sends her on a journey to make sense of her life and discern what part she has played in the vulnerable circumstance she finds herself in.
She must make a decision--face her self-defeating patterns that have led to this situation and move on or repeat her mistakes. Her life and the lives of her two children are dependent upon the choices she makes and the chances she takes from this point forward.
Paperback: 242Pages
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Open Books Press (July 22, 2014)
ASIN: B00M17OXYO
Twitter hashtag: #EFaithPooler
About the Author: Kathleen Pooler is an author and a retired Family Nurse Practitioner whose memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, published on July 28.2014 and work-in-progress sequel, Hope Matters: A Memoir are about how the power of hope through her faith in God helped her to transform, heal and transcend life’s obstacles and disappointments: domestic abuse, divorce, single parenting, loving and letting go of an alcoholic son, cancer and heart failure to live a life of joy and contentment. She believes that hope matters and that we are all strengthened and enlightened when we share our stories.
She lives with her husband Wayne in eastern New York.
She blogs weekly at her Memoir Writer’s Journey blog: http://krpooler.com
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| Photo Courtesy of Oh! Photography |
Thank you for this interview, Crystal. It's been a great experience working with you and your team on my blog tour.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog tour tips. I think a lot of authors could really learn from this!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margo. The Wow Blog Tour has been a great experience and I hope others can benefit from what I've learned. I appreciate you stopping by.
ReplyDelete