We have another special guest here with us today at Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion!Kim Robinson, author of The Roux in the Gumbo, joins us today and talks about her writing life and what she does to promote her book online. Let's see what she has to say.
PUYOBP: Thank you for joining us on Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion, Kim!
Kim: I am honored to be here. I have admired you for a long time, from your TWLAuthors
site and your Thewriterslife site. You are a wonderful warm person and I appreciate the help that you are extending to me. I would not be able to promote my ebook without your help. I think that Pumpupyouronlinebookpromotion is a wonderful idea and I already know that it is going to be a success because I dreamed about it.
PUYOBP: Well, thank you, Kim. That was so sweet of you to say. I'm loving it. I sit back and scratch my head at how far this little company has become. BTW, folks, this is Kim's last stop on her virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotions. So, let's get started!
Kim, can you tell us what your book is all about?
Kim: The Roux in the Gumbo is my grandmother and great-grandmother’s life story. It starts in the 1800’s in Louisiana and ends in 1997 at my grandmother’s funeral. My grandmother came from Los Angeles to Texas to help me, I was pregnant and bedridden with my second son C.J. My grandmother was at the birth of all my children. She is a huge part of my life. That is why I titled my book The Roux in the Gumbo. A lot of people don’t know what a Roux is so let me explain, a Roux is equal parts of flour and oil that you brown to make a gravy. I brown Mine until it is nut brown which happens to be my skin color so I have something to go by.
Anyway when it is done you add it to your Gumbo or any dish that you are making that requires a gravy and it thickens your soup and gives flavor. My grandmother was my Roux, she gave me my flavor. The name of the book came to me when we were making Gumbo, something that I do every Christmas. So back to the book, my grandmother and I were watching Oprah and she was talking about her upcoming book, my grandmother said, “I had more stuff happen to me then she did someone should write my story.”
Since I was going stir crazy having to lay in the bed it dawned on me that “I could do this. I could write her story.”
So we pulled the computer over to the fold out bed where I had to lay every day for two months until my second son was born. A lot of her stories I had heard several times while growing up, but when we got into she told me things that she had never told any one else in her life. After my son was born she stayed with me for two months before going back home, at the airport I gave a gift, it was a tape recorder with a package of tapes so that when she thought of something she could just record it and when she filled up the tape she could mail it to me. I had tapes coming almost every week. I wrote out the chapters in her voice and then I was so enthralled with Louisiana that I decided I needed to see this place. I have family that is still there and I called my aunt and she invited me to stay with her. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time my children are 11 months apart.
PUYOBP: I understand that your book is not only in print, but in ebook format, and with different publishers. Can you tell us how that happened?
Kim: I signed with Jadore publishing and the first time that it was published was with Whiskey Creek Press but they did not have distribution so I canceled my print contract and with another publisher but they didn’t have distribution either so I canceled with them and when my ebook contract with WCP was up I decided to go with Mardi Gras because several people told me that they were pretty good. So that is where I am now.
PUYOBP: Is this your first experience with ebooks?
Kim: This is my second experience with ebooks and I am hoping that this one comes out better, I did not know how to market my ebook and most people prefer print. I sold over 2000 books out of my own hand without having distribution so now that I have distribution I am hoping that things go better.
PUYOBP: Do you have more books published electronically?
Kim: I have two virtual cookbooks that I would love to get picked by a publisher but no wants to do a cookbook I am hoping to get a print contract and maybe a cooking show out of it where I host and the two hundred authors that submitted their recipes can come on and prepare their food and talk about their books.
PUYOBP: What do you think are the advantages of having your books in both formats?
Kim: I think that there are a lot of people who prefer ebooks, and it is better for people who are handicapped and have poor site. Personally my favorite is audio books and with the ebooks I put them in a program called ebook reader and listen to the book.
PUYOBP: In what other ways besides your virtual book tour are you planning on promoting your books?
Kim: I go to a lot of conferences and I speak at a lot of churches telling my testimony to help others and I find places of the grid like antique stores and lots of sign and dines and things like that.
PUYOBP: Have you had any offline booksignings with either of your books and how did that go?
Kim: Many if you go to my website www.kim-robinson.com and look under the table of events you will see where I have been.
PUYOBP: Do you have a mentor?
Kim: Yes I do, all the writers that I have been reading since I was a little kid.
PUYOBP: I know you run Kim’s Crew and are on several boards. Do you think it’s a waste of writing time or do you feel they are valuable in terms of contacts, establishing friendships with other writers, etc…?
Kim: I love talking to other authors this is how I grew It is how I learned everything about writing and it is how I learned about all the events and got to meet authors who would help me get my self off the ground .
PUYOBP: So, what’s next on the agenda after The Roux in the Gumbo?
Kim: Next is my life story about my life. Of being a madam, call girl, drug dealer and drug addict for over twelve years the catalyst for this life was being raped by a preacher at the age of five and not having a relationship with god for over thirty years.
PUYOBP: Thank you for coming, Kim, and I hope you make many sales! Good luck to you and I'll be talking to you soon. ;o)
Tags: How to Pump UP Your Book Promotion, online book promotion, author publicity, book promotion, book promotion tips, virtual book tour, author interviews, guest blogger
No comments:
Post a Comment