Everyone needs a little pixie dust and cocoa powder

You've read my books, seen interviews of me on various blogs and websites, and just when you think you know Denise Robbins the author, she throws something else at you.

For those of you who don't know, besides being a writer, I am also a chocolatier. I make all kinds of chocolate treats. I started the two ventures, making chocolate candies (truffles first then shaped-lollipops) and writing at about the same time.

Every fall I make caramel covered and sometimes caramel/chocolate covered apples for Mack's Apples, a local apple orchard. During the holiday season I usually make dozens upon dozens of chocolate snowmen, bears with Santa hats, penguins in winter scarves, etc., for my friends who own Big Easy Bagel in Manchester, NH.

Throughout the year I will make various candies and chocolate sweets for baby showers, weddings, birthdays, school events, sports events, and charities. This year I even made something very special for the ladies of the New Hampshire Romance Writers group when I gave a talk on how to write a love scene. ;-) Let's just say they had great inspiration to write that scene.

This is me five years ago when I first started making all that chocolate and a local television show, The NH Chronicle, asked me to be on a segment.



Publicity can be so much fun. . .and fattening! Come back tomorrow and I'll post a recipe for something sweet and chocolatey. Because as my slogan says, "Everyone needs a little pixie dust and cocoa powder."

Romance in the Back Seat

Are you a published romance author on the East Coast? Do you want some more publiciry?

Checkout Terry's new website http://www.romanceinthebackseat.com and read all about her project of back seat author interviews.

She is going to be doing a whole trek up the coast interviewing romance authors. I, of course, suggested that I might know a few more.

Checkout her site, shoot her a message, and help her out. Tell her that I passed on the information.

Have fun!

Marketing Saturday with author Denise Robbins

I've decided that Saturdays need to be my marketing day. Why?

Gee, cuz during the week I have to drive to work in South Boston and who can be creative after that. :-)

And because first thing this morning I sold a book so it seemed like a good day to focus on promotion.

Went for breakfast this morning at Sammy J's around the corner from me and one of the ladies asked if she could buy a copy of It Happens in Threes. What a great way to start the day!

Did I tell you I got the "You don't say no to girls. . .who do it and write about it" T-shirts?

Well, I did. Actually, I will be picking up some larger size T-shirts this week from Kim and Deb at www.youdontsaynotogirls.com. In honor of those T-shirts they made especially for me and all us writers, I thought I would try to come up with something fun to so readers of It Happens in Threes can also get one of the T-shirts.

Don't you want one?! Well, you might if you saw a picture of it. Sheesh! I guess I have to get someone to take a picture of my hiney - I mean backside just like on my book cover so you all can see the very cool shirt.

While I try to devise a wonderful contest, I am sitting in my home office with the cats not so patiently waiting to be paid attention and try to focus on my upcoming radio interview with Don McCauley of Free Publicity Focus Group http://www.freepublicitygroup.com.

Speaking of interviews, my friend and mystery author CJ West, is going to be hosting a new blogtalk radio show. Here is a link to his website http://www.22wb.com/. Anyway, I have to send him a copy of It Happens in Threes today so he can read it before I guest a spot on his talk show. I hope he is prepared for a heart-stopping romantic suspense! :-) Not to worry, I did forewarn him.

In the meantime, I am also working with Jeannie Ruesch of www.willdesignforchocolate.com on my next book trailer video for Killer Bunny Hill that will be out in July just in time for the national RWA conference. I'm just so excited I get goosebumps every time I think about it.

OH! And I so need to update my website at www.deniserobbins.com. I realized yesterday that I had not even posted the logline that my friend and mystery romance author Nora LeDuc at www.noraleduc.com helped me craft after about 25 email exchanges. Nora's latest book, Murder Came Calling, will be out in June.

Plus, I haven't even listed my next book event that is scheduled for July 11 at the Toadstool Bookstop in Milford (www.toadbooks.com) with author Diana Rubino (http://www.dianarubino.com/) and celebrate her latest release A Bloody Good Cruise along with Killer Bunny Hill.

With my next release coming out in July, I have to get my friend and author Jessica James of http://bookexposure.blogspot.com/ to create my next press release. Seriously, Jessica is the best when it comes to creating the right message for the media.

Okay, is it me or has this job thing truly interfered not with just my writing but my marketing and promotion.

Sheesh! I still owe a response to the Friday Creative Writing Prompt.

With all that said, and , how do other authors manage it and stay sane along the way?

Feel free to share, rant, toss ideas, or just tell us who you work with on your promotion or what you like to see.

Book Exposure and Free Book

Only two days left to leave a comment at Jessica's blog and possibly win a free copy of my book IT HAPPENS IN THREES.

Check out her blog at http://bookexposure.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

Book Exposure

Remember last week I told you about a blog called Bookexposure and the author Jessica James who was a newspaper editor? She also writes historical fiction. Truly a woman of many talents.

After she helped me with my press release for IT HAPPENS IN THREES, she has given me many more tips on how to expose my book for others to know it exists.

The other day, she sent me an email to let me know that she was going to feature my book on her blog. If you haven't checked out her blog before then, please check it out from. . .

03/09/2009 - 03/14/2009: IT HAPPENS IN THREES will be featured on Bookexposure, http://bookexposure.blogspot.com/.

Press Release

Although I have been writing. . .at page 85 as of this morning, I also did spend a little time on the publicity thing.

I found this wonderful person named Jessica James and her blog at http://bookexposure.blogspot.com/.

Jessica is an author and a newspaper editor with 18 years experience. She knows how to craft a press release and how to address an email to an editor to get their attention.

I worked with Jessica through email the past three days where she asked me a bunch of questions and in the end, I have a press release that I have already sent out to a local paper and the blurb to attach to submit to a newspaper editor to catch their interest in possibly doing an interview.

Seriously, if any of you are having troubles with getting that press release done, check out her blog and contact her. I highly recommend her!

Next Book Signing

It really is nice to have friends. A friend of mine owns a small breakfast and ice cream shop and she has decided that my next book signing will be at her place.


Between bacon and eggs, you can buy a book. :-) Or buy the book before breakfast and start reading it while you're there.

The event is Saturday, March 14 from 8AM - 10AM at Sammy J's. The address is 144 Main Street in Salem, NH.

Mark your calendars!

Publicity Revelation

I don't remember if I have written about this in the past or not, but let's talk publicity.

How am I supposed to write and do my daily grind type stuff if I also have to work on the publicity for my book?
I'm not talking about the actual book events and interviews and such things as that. Please, those are the fun and can be very enlightening. Plus, you never know what story idea may come from it.

I'm talking about the actual creation and submittal press releases. Even though I may be able to write one where do I send it? There is no clear list for a new writer that says, "Send here."
And there are no instructions on how and who to contact to get media interviews.
To top that off, as a novice author with a small publishing house how do you arrange book events?

I'm sure that it can and has been done. But, dang, if that does not take a great deal of time and research. I have spent days trying to find information, and although I know I am internet search challenged, I still have not found answers. For example, how do I send a press release to the New York Time, Washington Post, or Boston Globe? Better yet...all major newspapers across the US and on the web?

Let's face it, without good publicity that book will remain in a warehouse or on a shelf (if it's even in the bookstores). That begs another question. How to get the bookstores to carry the book?

If you have answers to these questions, please feel free to post them here for others.

Now, knowing that I am not a marketing guru or a salesperson, I decided to locate and contact a public relations firm. Actually, I contacted 3 of them. Can you believe that not one has responded back?? That begs the question of why? Is it because my book is a romance? Hey - don't say anything. There were several agencies I checked into that specifically did not work with "genre fiction". No accounting for taste. :-)

Perhaps they don't think my book is worth the effort because my publisher is small? So what. They'll only get bigger...and already are.

And knowing that I have a second book to be released this year you would think, "Yeah, this is a no-brainer. We should work with this writer."

So...bottom line is this. I want my writing to be my career. How do I get there? PUBLICITY
How do I get that publicity?

Yup, I'm in the background waving my hand saying, "I have no clue."