1. Harlequin is a good place to be.  They had four authors on the tour, three of whom started with Arabesque books in the mid-nineties around the time I did–Donna Hill, Rochelle Alers and Brenda Jackson.  These authors could write for any publishing house they want and they’ve chosen Harlequin.  That speaks volumes for Harlequin. 

2. HarperCollins is a good place to be.  Harper had three authors on the tour, including me.  I was the newbie beside New Yorks Times Bestseller Kimberla Lawson Roby and the perennial favorite Beverly Jenkins.  HarperCollins stepped up to the plate for us.  They hosted an online interview with us while we were on the road and they equipped Beverly with a video camera so she could record our stops.

3. New York Times Bestsellers come in all shapes and sizes.  Street lit author Wahida Clarke made the list and she’s only published three books, two of which were written while she was in prison.  Romance writer Brenda Jackson made the list and she’s published 56 books over about a 13-year period.  Women’s fiction author Kim Roby made the list and she self-published her first book.  Street lit author Vickie Stringer made the list and owns a publishing house.  Vickie also started writing while in prison.

4. Readers read across genres.  I sorta knew this but the tour drove the point home.  Readers who bought me, Victoria Christopher Murray and Marilynn Griffith also bought Vickie and Wahida as well as erotica author Allison Hobbs.  Of course, there were some readers who only wanted Wahida or Vickie, while others only wanted me, Marilynn or Victoria. Most of them though read widely though.

5. Authors are generous.  There were a lot of personal stories and business insights shared on this trip.  We talked about the pros-and-cons of being a Black Expressions main selection.  We shared tips on effective marketing and promotion.  We bought each others’ books.

6. Romance readers turn out for booksignings.  I’d guess that Brenda Jackson, Donna Hill, Rochelle Alers and Beverly Jenkins probably had the most readers visit them.  These readers had their full backlist so they’d been fans for a while. 

7. Publishing regularly and often has it benefits.  Brenda, Donna, Rochelle and Beverly are all wonderful writers but I think the fact that romance demands publishing multiple books a year comes into play in the characteristics of their readers.  These readers have gotten to know Brenda, Donna, Rochelle and Beverly through 15 years of books coming out multiple times a year (Rochelle will have 12 out next year!) so there’s a special relationship with them.  As an example, Brenda sponsors a cruise with her readers every two years.  A cruise!  Beverly Jenkins does weekend pajama parties with hers.

That’s all I can think of now. If I think of something else. I’ll start another list.

So how much of this did you already know and what was new to you?

UPDATE:  Marilynn Griffith has her list up HERE.  It’s well worth a read. 

You know, I had planned to take a lot of pictures during the tour.  My plans went awry even before I left the airport.  Guess what I did?  I left my cell phone in the car.  Yes, that same cell phone I was going to use to take pictures.  As a result, I have no pictures.  Fortunately for you, others didn’t copy my mistake. 

Radiah Hubbert of Urban Reviews and her husband Charles came out to visit us at the Country Club Hills stop on Saturday.  They have pictures and a video. 

Jeanette blogged about her visit with us in Fort Wayne.  She and fellow members of the Motown Review Book Club drove all the way down from Detroit.

Author Marilynn Griffith blogged about the tour also.  Marilynn’s hometown paper did a great article on her and the tour.

If you’re in a listening mood, Beverly Jenkins, Kim Roby, me and a few other authors did a stint on blogtalkradio during our bus ride from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne. It’s only about 20 minutes.

And then there’s my recap HERE.

That should keep you busy. 

Quiz time: Can you find me in the pictures/video?  If so, what colors am I wearing?

UPDATE:  Check out Jeanette’s slideshow.

I’m back from the Soul Expressions Tour. I’m blogging today at Blogging in Black about my experience. Give me a day or two to catch my breath and I’ll be back to catch up on the posts here.

I also have a guest author coming this week.  You’re going to like her! 

Hi, everybody, I’m checking in from on the road.  I have to tell you that I’m having a great time meeting readers, signing books, and interacting with old author friends and making new ones.  I’ll post more on the trip when I get back.

I’m writing this post because of a schedule change in the Soul Expressions Author Tour.  Actually, this change occurred a while and I neglected to post it.  The Meet and Greet Reception that was to be held on Saturday evening at the Holiday Inn Matteson has been CANCELLED!

I apologize for the late notice but I wanted to let you know.

I look forward to talking with you when I get back but I’m off to bed now.

Be blessed!

The pace of the week steps up drastically today as I leave for the Soul Expressions Author Tour.  Today I leave for Indianapolis.  I’m taking my trusty-dusty iPod (and recorder) with me to record each day’s events.  I’m not taking my laptop so I won’t be able to blog each day, but I will give you a play-by-play when I get back.  Count on it.

I’m not going to leave you stranded while I’maway.  I’ve schedule a couple of posts for Thursday and Friday to hold you over until I get back. 

Thursday will be Open Mic Day for Readers.  That means you’re free to post Comments about anything that’s on your mind related to books and reading.  You can Comment on books you like, don’t like, the last book you read, the book you’re reading next, great web sites for readers, anything about reading.  You can even ask questions about my books, past and future.  The only restriction is that the questions should be from a reader’s perspective (and shouldn’t give away any major plot points of books!).

Friday will be Open Mic Day for Writers.  On this day the writer in you is free to post Comments and Questions related to writing.  I won’t be able to answer until next week, but you’re free to answer each other as you like.  We have some smart people visiting this blog, many of them published authors.  I”m sure they’ll help out.

One final treat for you.  If you’re around on Friday, you can catch me, Beverly Jenkins and Kimberla Lawson Roby on the road from the tour LIVE at 1:30pm on Blog Talk Radio (Romance Radio).  It’ll be archived in case you miss it.

That’s it.  Enjoy the rest of your week!  Here’s a quick run-down of the tour schedule. 

(more…)

I found this graphic for the 2008 Soul Expressions Author Tour that I’ll be a part of in August. You’ll notice that there are a variety of genres represented, with Up Pops the Devil and Rhythms of Grace, by one of this week’s guest bloggers, prominent in the mix. 

I hope to see you on the road so check out the dates below the image for a stop near you.

TOUR STOPS

Thursday, August 7th INDIANAPOLIS area

10am – 11:15am, Wal-Mart in Lawrence, 10735 Pendleton Pike

2pm – 3:15pm, Wal-Mart in Fishers, 8300 East 96th Street

4:45pm – 6pm, Wal-Mart in Indianapolis, 3221 West 86th Street

Friday, August 8th NORTHERN INDIANA area

10am – 11:15pm, Wal-Mart in Fort Wayne, 7502 Southtown Crossing Blvd.

2:30pm – 3:30pm, Wal-Mart in South Bend, 3701 Portage Road

5pm – 6:15pm, Wal-Mart in Hammond, 1828 165th Street

Saturday, August 9th CHICAGO area

10am – 11:30am, Wal-Mart in Country Club Hills, 4005 West 167th Street

2:30pm – 3:30pm, Wal-Mart in Joliet, 2424 W. Jefferson Street

6:30pm- 9:00pm, Free Reception, Holiday Inn in Matteson, 500 Holiday Plaza Drive CANCELLED!!

Sunday, August 10th CHICAGO area

11:00 am- noon, Wal-Mart in Crestwood, 4700 W. 135th Street

3pm – 4:00pm, Wal-Mart in Lansing, 16771 Torrence Avenue

You may want to bookmark this page for easy reference.  You can also find the dates on my Event Calendar.

If you think you’re going to make it to a stop,  please comment on this post and let me know where on the tour I should expect you.

I’ve done my share of Radio and Internet interviews. They’re fun and the time usually passes quickly. Recently, I was a guest on Marsha Sumner’s show, Cross Talk Urban Style, on Heaven 1580AM. We talked for about an hour. She’s a wonderful host and I had a great time. Cross Talk Urban Style is a live call-in show that airs M-F from 10am-1pm ET. The first hour of each show is dedicated to books. You should take a listen when you have some time.

I’m scheduled to be on the Internet show, Sistah Confessions, on August 5 at 7pCT. Tifany Jones is the host. Tune in, if you can.

I hope to be on WWA Internet Radio, The World of Publishing, sometime soon. I’ve been on the show before and, as usual, had a great time. I was scheduled to be on back in May but I forgot and they were left with airtime that I was supposed to have filled. That was bad on my part. It’s about the worse thing you can do in radio. I hope the hosts forgive me and give me another chance, but I’ll certainly understand if they don’t. I really put them in a bad place.
UPDATE: They forgave me! I’m scheduled to do the show on September 29th at 7pCT/8pET.

I like being on these radio shows, but do you listen to them and how often? Which ones are your favorites? Let me know. I’m interested in what you think about traditional and Internet radio shows.

NOTE: All of these events are listed on my Event Calendar so you can keep track there.

Good news!  I’ll be participating in the 2008 Soul Expressions Author Tour, where I’ll be signing copies of Up Pops the Devil.  The tour visits ten WalMart stores in the Indianapolis and Chicago areas during August 7-10.  I’ve posted the tour schedule on my Event Calendar.  I hope I get to see some of you at one or more of the events. 

The tour group consists of the following 13 authors (NOTE: I’m not sure why I’m listed as romance instead of fiction or Christian fiction):

Angela Benson, Up Pops the Devil (romance)

Beverly Jenkins, Jewel (historical romance)

Brenda Jackson, Just Deserts (romance)

Donna Hill, Chances Are (romance)

Earl Sewell, If I Were Your Boyfriend (young adult)

Geneva Holliday, Seduction (romance)

Kimberla Lawson Roby, One in a Million (fiction)

L. Divine, Drama High: Lady J (young adult)

Rochelle Alers, Taken By Storm (romance)

Seven, Gorilla Black (urban lit)

Wahida Clark, Payback is a Mutha (urban lit)

Victoria Christopher Murray, Too Little, Too Late (Christian fiction)

Good news! Sandi Mallory, host of Morning Journey on NPR (WEAA-AM Baltimore), interviewed me yesterday morning. She had read the The Amen Sisters and contacted my publicist at Grand Central Publishing.  I enjoyed it, but I have a habit that I have to lose. I finish most my statements with, “if you know what I mean.” YIKES!  I must get ready for prime time.

The blog tour for The Amen Sisters officially ended this past week.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be telling you about some of the things I learned about myself and the process while on the road virtually. The key thing that I found out is while I read several blogs regularly, I rarely post.  Now this trait was problematic when I was touring because I had to post.  I have to tell you a secret: I didn’t like it.  At first. 

I dreaded those blogs that required me to log-in in order to comment.  Why?  It took time.  As the tour progressed though, I got more comfortable with posting and began to enjoy it.  I also thought about you out there reading this blog.  Are you going to post a comment?  Why or why not? 

I’m going to issue a challenge.  I have a counter that tells me approximately how many unique site visitors I get each day.  The commenters are less than 1-2% of that number.  My challenge is for everyone reading this post to post a comment. You don’t have to log-in.  Just post your comment and let me know why you do or don’t comment often at the blogs you visit.

I want to say a special thanks to Patricia at http://readinnwritin.blogspot.com/ and L. Nuchell at http://lnuchellbooks.wordpress.com/ for hosting me last week even though I didn’t provide them with any materials to post.  They took better care of me than I took of myself.

I also want apologize to those who offered to host me but I never contacted.  I really do need an assistant to help me manage my two lives. 

I am very grateful to Cheryl and Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book Promotion for organizing this tour. It never would have happened without them. 

Enjoy your weekend!

If you missed any of the tour, you can catch up here:

Dec 26 – The Book Connection

Dec 27 – Dude, Where’s My Muse?

Dec 28 – A Book Blogger’s Diary

Jan 7 – Readin n Writin with Patricia