Bring In The New Year With Prizes And A Blog Hop Celebration!

Charlene Blogs welcomes you to a 

New Years Blog Hop Celebration!  

Beginning December 23rd and going until January 1st, every blog on the hop is giving away great prizes! So be sure to visit everyone listed below and get your contest entries in on all of them!  

Here's what you could win on Charlene Blogs!

  AND 

A PDF copy of Cornerstone Deep and a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card!

There are a few things you need to do to qualify for the drawing. *wink*

1. Leave a comment
2. Include your email address (example: santa[at]yahoo[dot]com)
3. FOLLOW Charlene Blogs 
4. LIKE the Chronicles of Shilo Manor series Facebook Fan Page on the side bar.  You'll be the first to know about what's going on!  New releases, tours, giveaways, freebees, insights, and more!  

That's it!  You're done!  Entries will be taken until midnight January 1st.  Winner will be announced January 2nd!

Just get started by entering my contest then begin the hop! 

*Hint* If when you click on the next blog you're not taken to a new window, right click on the next blog and open in a new tab. Close that window after you've finished their contest requirements, come back here and right click the next blog. *wink*

Have fun!  And Happy New Year Everyone!

Do you have the Oprah Disorder? -- Book Promo

Do you have the Oprah Disorder? I heard book publicists joke that their lives are much easier because Oprah is off the air—at least the old format of her show—and the first question publicists often used to get from authors was “Can you get me on Oprah?”

The Oprah Disorder is the obsession of wanting only the biggest media opportunities like national TV, national magazines, etc., and nothing else. This attitude is a recipe for promotional disaster. Every media opportunity is important, from the smallest local newspaper to the tiniest radio show, because you never know who is reading that paper or listening to that show!

We need to keep in mind that book marketing is more a marathon than a sprint. Success won’t happen over-night and there are going to be ups and downs.

Dan Smith of Smith Publicity says, “It takes time to achieve and sustain promotional momentum, and it typically takes at least two months to see book sales materialize from a promotional campaign. Authors often spend years crafting a book. The most successful then spend at least a year promoting their book in one way or another.”

Stay focused and don’t give up! I try to accept all invitations that will call attention to Cornerstone Deep that come my way.  We need to be open to them…even if it’s that guest post on that little blog with only a few followers. The biggest and best selling tool in the world is word-of-mouth.  And you never know when a jabber jaws will run across that little blog, be hooked, love your book, and spread the word.

BBCN Radio Interview - Part Two

As you know, last Thursday I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Donna Brown on Book Bags and Cat Naps BlogTalk radio show.  We had a bit of technical difficulty and weren't able to finish so we met again yesterday to continue our discussion.  She's such a great hostess.  This time her sleeping cats napped around the room while we visited. Lol.  Thank you Martha for asking your question, "Where did you get the ideas for your series?"  Funny how both the Chronicles of Shilo Manor series and the Aumelan series happened to evolved from the same type of source.

We dove more into who the characters of Cornerstone Deep are and how they became who they are. We also went into more detail about the upcoming Cornerstone Deep Echoes blog tour and prizes that are going to be offered through the month of February to celebrate its release. Starting in January, I'll have a whole page dedicated to the tour and prize giveaways with lots of ways to win. So watch for that!

Listen in on the player below to join us.  We expected a few "meows" to join in, but her kitties were happy and warm snuggled around her.  Good luck with that Christmas tree and your all those playful paws, Donna!  Lol.

Listen to internet radio with Donna M Brown on Blog Talk Radio







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BBCN Radio Interview

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Donna Brown on Book Bags and Cat Naps BlogTalk radio show today.  What a great hostess she is!  She had me jabbering. *blush*  I think the highlight of the conversation was the question asked by Lilac.  "Why does Cole love butter so much?"  Oh my word!  Of all the questions someone could ask, that one caught me off guard. Lol!  But it was great fun.  Thank you Lilac.

We talked a bit about Cornerstone Deep and Cornerstone Deep Echoes upcoming release in February.  We even gave a peek into what's coming up with my Aumelan series.

Listen in on the player below to join us.  There was a moment when Skype dropped me...*bumped my head good*...but Donna handled it with grace and we got right back on track. : )  Also, we had a bit of a mishap at the end and didn't get to finish.  But we'll be getting together on Tuesday at 9am CST to continue our discussion.  Yay! :D

Listen to internet radio with Donna M Brown on Blog Talk Radio

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Are You Hiding Yourself?

I've been looking for ways to make it easier to find my books and realized, though I have information on my websites about them, I could do better at making them more visible and reach more people.

I ran a post a while back about reviews.  I like quality reviews, and the more I read about their impact, I see they do hold sway.  People like what other people like.  I list several on my Author and Series sites but right now, they're on a special page dedicated them.  I receive a newsletter from a promotional agency that recommended putting clips of them in my onsite store.  I'm setting one up, so I'll be adding that to my page.

They also advised me to make getting to the buy page easy.  I didn't realize it, but it looks like I'm hiding myself. A quick-click button should be on my home page.  Buy-Now!  Yup.  I have work to do.

Seriously, people are bargain hunting these days.  So, I'm putting together some special offers and incentives to pull them my way.   I need to give them a reason to shop from me instead of Amazon.  Why not get the sale instead of giving Mr. Bezos a big cut? 










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