Virtual Book Tour: Marian L. Thomas, Page Forward

Is this the year you become a published author? You can, by learning how to "Page Forward" your writing thoughts in 2010.

Defining “Page Forward”:

Purpose is a term we hear often but to a new author it means not "why" you write but "what" you

want your readers to get out of your story.

Attention to detail. Make sure your story has it but leave something for the readers imagination.
 

Gravitate is  what we are looking to accomplish with our books. It's what draws a reader to your book. This is not the time to think like an author, but the time to think like a reader! Ask yourself? If I were a reader what would draw me to this book at first glance? Now go work on that mental picture.

Evolve is something we want to take place within our story and within our characters. How we do this often depends on us. When writing a chapter, take a few notes. Nothing major but enough that helps you stay on track of where you see the character heading further into the story. 

Focus is not just a term, concept or fancy word to throw around every now and then. It means

that one must have a fixed plan of sight. See you dream and then start doing what it takes to head toward it.

Organization is extremely important. Get organized by making a checklist of the tasks you need to

accomplish now that the ball is rolling in the forward direction. Make sure you also indicate the

timeline in which you need to accomplish each task.

Reasons are what we write down as a personal note to ourselves. Some call them reminders.

Pull them out when you need to go back to step one.
 

Write out a plan on how you are going to publish " you". This might sound strange at this stage but so important. You need to begin to get your name out there months before your book does.

Application of positive advice given by other published Authors is something that will help you limit mistakes. They will be made. We learn, we apply and we move forward.

Readiness and willingness to roll up your sleeves and hang in there for even the rough spots is vital! Publishing a novel is exciting, thrilling and satisfying but it's not a world of chocolate either. Sometimes the road will be bitter with rejection. Keep page forward!

Determination is what will keep you in the writing "game" as they say. If you find yourself losing it, go back to step one--focus!

About the Author:

Originally from Chicago but currently resides in Atlanta with her husband and their spoiled but playful dog-Winston, whom she likes to affectionately, refer to as “big-boned”.  Received her Bachelor’s of Art degree in Business Communication, graduating Magna Cum Laude and began her journey to authorship writing poetry but later moved on to write for the Collegian as a News Editor and Sports Editor during her early college years. Mrs. Thomas debut title Color Me Jazzmyne recently reached #1 on the Amazon.com Bestseller list.

Website: http://www.marianlthomas.com

Marian is currently on the Authors-Supporting-Authors blog tour. Read her author interview hosted by Cate Masters going on now.

Here is the link: http://catemasters.blogspot.com/

To APA- "Thank you so much for having me as a guest blogger. I can't tell you how much I have appreciated the support that APA has shown me."-Marian L. Thomas

Virtual Book Tour: Spying A Marketing Technique , Dave and Lillian Brummet

One of the best ways to research your own marketing plan is to spy on other authors. Visit as many other authors' websites as you have time for or interest in – and ask yourself some vital questions.

-       What are other books in your genre doing?

-       What do they look like?

-       What are they selling for?

-       How are the other authors promoting their work

-        and most important: What can you do to stand out among them?

This research and evaluation of your peers in the industry will answer vital questions that can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing plan. This research will provide you with information on what they are doing to promote their book, what they are highlighting and how they are attracting visitors to their site.

Visit your library to evaluate books in your genre and use the Internet to obtain the other information you need. The local bookstore can provide useful information too. Simply walk around and look at the promotions other authors are sending bookstores – What do you like/dislike about them and how can you use this to enhance your marketing efforts? We also invite you to visit our site (http://www.brummet.ca) where you can see what we have done to provide interesting, compelling content and keep people interested in our work.

Writers are natural researchers - we have to be! We just need to focus this talent in a slightly different way. Knowing what others are doing will help you develop your website and other promotional materials so that you stand out in a crowd like a purple snowflake in a snowstorm.

Bio:

Dave and Lillian Brummet have been writing professionally as a team since 1999,  starting out as free lance writers – which they continue to do today. To date, they have written 3 published books. The Brummets are also the hosts of the Conscious Discussions talk radio show and of the Authors Read radio program. They supplement these activities with two blogs and a newsletter in an effort to provide ample information to their audience. The main focus of their work is to inspire hope in individuals, helping them realize the value of their efforts and encouraging them to become more positive, proactive in life.

Virtual Book Tour: Aurora Lightbourne

I am Aurora Lightbourne, I am a PC tech and writer. I am currently working on book 4 of my Space Tripper series as well as two other books, a Steampunk book and a Fairytale/Fantasy book.

So far on my tour I have done interviews, talked about 'brand name' book buyers and self/small published authors, wrote about my writing and latest works. This time I would like to talk about the genre of Science Fiction.

There have been various articles written in the past year about the supposed 'death' of Sci-Fi. And indeed, if you mention you write Sci-Fi to most people they will quickly back away. But, let's consider if this decline in Sci-Fi is really true. For one, the genre has its own channel, I don't get cable but I don't remember hearing of any other channel that is named after a specific genre other than Sci-Fi, so it must be popular. And really, there are many popular classic and new movies, books and TV shows that are classified as Science Fiction.

Although, if asked, many people will deny liking Sci-Fi and even cringe at the thought, the reality is many people actually like, no, love Sci-Fi, they just don't realize it.

Sci-Fi is a varied genre, sometimes you don't even realize it is Science Fiction when you see it. Many times Sci-Fi is classified as Sci-fi/Fantasy as Science Fiction is a type of Fantasy only with some futuristic, alien, alternate history/worlds or technological/mechanical elements.

A few movies, books and TV shows you may not have thought of as Sci-Fi:

Movies: Star Wars, Stargate, Blade Runner, Alien, Terminator, E.T., Planet of the Apes, Total Recall, The Matrix, Tron, RoboCop, Jurassic Park, Clockwork Orange, Fifth Element, I am Legend, The Fly, Mad Max, Back to the Future, Wall-E, The Abyss, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Robot, The Invisible man, Superman, Godzilla, Inner Space, Independence Day, Wild Wild West, Stepford Wives, Dune, Explorers, Flash Gordon, Cocoon, Batteries not Included, Buckaroo Bonzai, Truman Show, Men in Black, The 13^th Floor, My Science Project, Frankenstein, Last Starfighter, King Kong, Deep Impact, Armageddon, Space Cowboys, Incredible Shrinking Man, Time Machine, Pluto Nash, James Bond, X-men, Ironman, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Weird Science and many, many more.

Books: Dragon Riders-McCaffrey, Crystal Rain-Buckell, Dune, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Wizard of Oz, Island of Doctor Moreau, We, Neuromancer, Frankenstein, Most Superhero Comic Books, Watchmen, Vampire earth series, Jurassic Park, Time Machine, Watership Down, Old Man's War, Maske, Book of the Short Sun, Wizard of Earthsea, The Fountainhead, A Wrinkle in Time, Not Quite Human, I am Legend, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Handmaid's Tale etc.

TV Shows: Lost, X-Files, Twilight Zone, Dr. Who, Sliders, Quantum Leap, Outer Limits, Thunderbirds, Dark Angel, 3^rd Rock from the Sun, Wonder Woman, Jetsons, Stargate, Adventures of Superman, Smallville, Lois and Clark, Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian, The Avengers, Batman, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Futurama, Greatest American Hero, The Flash, The Wild Wild West, Misfits of Science, Space Ghost and so on.

As you can see Science Fiction has been and continues to be very popular, people just don't always think 'Sci-Fi' when they see it.

So what constitutes Sci-Fi? How can some of the above mentioned shows or books be considered part of this quirky genre?

Wikipedia defines it as: a genre of fiction that differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (meaning it has imaginary things that are possible in the future).

These may include:

• A setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record
• A setting in outer space, on other worlds, or involving aliens
• Stories that involve technology or scientific principles that contradict known laws of nature
• Stories that involve discovery or application of new scientific principles, such as time travel or psionics, or new technology, such as nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel or robots, or of new and different political or social systems (e.g., a dystopia, or a situation where organized society has collapsed)

As a means of understanding the world through speculation and storytelling, science fiction has antecedents back to mythology, though precursors to science fiction as literature can be seen in Lucian's True History in the 2nd century, some of the Arabian Nights tales, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter in the 10th century,Ibn al-Nafis ' Theologus Autodidactus in the 13th century,and Jules Verne's A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in the 19th century.

Types of stories you may not realize are related to Sci-Fi : Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Time Travel, Alternate History, Military (interplanetary war etc), Apocalyptic (Deep Impact, Mad Max etc), Superhuman (abnormal abilities, mutations), Space Opera, Space Western, New Wave.

Science Fiction is very closely related and often times blends the genres such as fantasy, horror fiction (Frankenstein), Mystery Fiction (James Bond), History (alternate versions such as Steampunk) and Superhero Fiction (Fantastic 4, X-men, Superman, Spiderman).

As you can see, Science Fiction is varied and deep and can encompass a wide array of topics and storylines and, as far as I can tell, is far from 'dead' or 'dying'.

So the next time someone mentions Sci-Fi don't take a step back, lean in closer and ask, “What type? What is it about?” You might be surprised by how much you love it.

You can even give it a try right now by visiting my website and getting the whole first half of Space Trippers Book 1 FREE! http://alightbourne.netau.net/

I would classify my Space Tripper Series as Sci-Fi/Fantasy adventure.
The story has a serious plot but also contains a lot of humor, especially when Tim tries all of his pick-up lines on Valesque and gets shot down cold every time. You can read the story synopsis under my Virtual Book Tour information on my website above.

Thank you for joining me on Authors Promoting Authors!

Please continue to follow me on my Online Book Tour April 1-June 1 2010 as well, by visiting the websites on my tour schedule and leaving me comments, even just a 'Hi'!
If you do you will be entered in a drawing to win an autographed copy of one of my Space Trippers books as well as a custom book-thong.

And don't forget, if you follow me on twitter/facebook/myspace you can also play a game with me during my online tour for a chance to win a $25 Visa Gift Card (good anywhere you can spend money).

For my tour schedule, crossword blank and prize details see my event page on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=114666428547534

Or visit my Author site: http://alightbourne.netau.net/

Remember, since this is online, you can leave me comments and see my interviews and posts long after the posting date on the schedule (you may need to scroll down the pages to find my posts). Come join me and have Fun!

A. Lightbourne's Space Trippers Books 1 & 2 are available in paperback as one volume from any bookstore in your town or online such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=space+trippers+a+lightbourne

Books 1-3 are also available separately as ebooks for ipad, kindle, sony and more from any ebook retailer.