Susan Klopfer lives and blogs from Cuenca, Ecuador where she is currently writing a historical fiction novel based on civi rights stories of the Mississippi Delta -- but the story will take readers into South America, too. This photo was taken in a Panama hat shop in Cuenca where she also blogs about her new retirement life.
YOUR BOOK OR EBOOK IS written and an audience surely awaits. But now you must capture readers. How do you get the word out and sell those books?
Of course, there are the usual first line strategies: news releases, media interviews, direct sales, giving seminars and so forth. But here's another consideration -- why not go on a journey to the "seat" of your book and blog along the way. Everyone is talking about blogs and blogging, but what does that have to do with your book and why should you care? Internet blogging can bring in the readers, especially if you combine it with a real adventure.
If you have not been blogging, don't be afraid. It isn't so hard to do. You will need to have some Internet experience, but that is all.
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A BLOG (short for web log) is a website where entries provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Readers may leave comments if you choose. Most blogs are simply text although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
Blogging can be free or you can pay a small fee to use a blogging site. I happen to use Blogger, which is owned by Google. Several years ago, I wrote a book on Mississippi Civil Rights and at the same time set up several blogs that bring daily visitors. The blog has links, of course, to various sites where the book can be purchased.
ONE SUMMER, I went on a blogging journey to do more research, take photos and visit the people I met in the Mississippi Delta when writing the book Who Killed Emmett Till, (and eBook) and my Blog visitors were invited to come along. Here's the news release that I sent out announcing this blogging journey:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Bloggers Set to Revisit Mississippi Delta Civil Rights People and Places
Mount Pleasant, Iowa (USA), May 29, 2007--Two friends from Cleveland, Mississippi and Mount Pleasant, Iowa, are spending ten days roaming and blogging the Mississippi Delta while visiting civil rights people and places. Their pictures and stories will be placed daily at http://mississippimurders.com on the Internet.
Margaret Block, an early civil rights advocate, and Susan Klopfer, author of Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited, plan to roam the Mississippi Delta starting June 1, visiting people and places of the modern civil rights movement. "We'll be traveling in and out of the Delta for ten days as we photograph important spots and talk about the region's history," Klopfer said.
"We plan to visit the towns of Money, Drew, Glendora, Greenwood and other spots connected to the murders of Emmett Till, Birdia Keglar, Adlena Hamlett and Cleve McDowell, among others who were killed for their civil rights activities or just for being black."
Block, an early SNCC volunteer, spent her first years out of high school in the small town of Charleston where they will kick off their blogging venture by attending a program June 1 honoring Keglar. The NAACP leader was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1966 on her way home from a Jackson meeting with Sen. Robert Kennedy. Keglar once saved Block's life by moving her out of Charleston in a hearse from the funeral home that Keglar managed.
"We have very few scheduled stops, but we will also leave the Delta to attend the funeral of Mrs. Chaney, James Chaney's mother in Meridian," Block said. The two also plan to visit with Unita Blackwell, Mississippi's first black woman mayor, and will take pictures as they roam the historical Brooks Farm, Parchman penitentiary, and Clarksdale, home of Aaron Henry, an early civil rights leader whom Block also knew.
The two women met when Klopfer was researching a book on the civil rights movement, "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited." Klopfer was living on the grounds of Parchman at the time, where her husband was the chief psychologist.
(Contact details were given at the top of the release.)
So... I was contacted by several reporters before we left on the journey for interviews and a stories . . . looks like this idea was a winner, and could be for you, too.
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Susan Klopfer writes on civil rights history and current issues, including retirement and diversity. She is the author of several civil rights books and ebooks that related to the Mississippi Delta, including her newest book, "Who Killed Emmett Till," available in e-book, audio book and print.
Contact the Author
Susan Klopfer
civil rights, cold cases, Emmett Till
sklopfer@gmail.com
Susan Klopfer's web site
