Hey, book talk authors and readers, I have a treat for you. We are going to be giving you writing tips. And I found a best selling author who has published 50 books, 55 o. She’s been with an amazing publisher. She’s out on a nationwide book tour right now. You know, I do walk and talks. I give you daily tips on writing screenplays and on writing books. She’s about to go on her first part of her tour. Sheila Roberts, thank you for joining us so much. Please first show your book. Her book is just out. It’s amazing. She write you. Tell us what you write. Well.
You saw that little cutie sneaking around in the background? That was my sweet pie who’s helping me on the tour and.
Goes, maybe I would take this. Tell us about this book.
Okay, good. All Karen, make sure you see it. Yes, this is coming out on Tuesday, but I’m actually doing a little pre signing at the Poison Pen in Scottsdale here, getting the hang out with Karen, who we actually met on TikTok. So we’re social media buddies. We’re our first time to get to hang out in person. So I’m.
Great. I’m so excited. Oh, and we wanna do tips and tricks and we literally have to go. So I thought we just do five of our top tips to help you. And you have a book and everyone says, how do I get an agent or how do I get it published? So I’m gonna jump in. I have been with Harper Collins and I, the way I found an agent, but I’m also indie published. So I’m gonna give the indie tips and Sheila’s gonna give the traditional publishing tips because she is the queen of that. So my indie tip is if you have a book, I’m gonna give you five. Just really fast. Start thinking of your five. Okay, I know we’re just making this up. We’re gonna make it up. Okay, so first of all, you have a finish book. You wanna make sure that it’s edited and that it’s absolutely the best it can be. You have one time to make a first impression. So make sure that, you know, you’ve got it good and it’s clean with grammar and all of that.
Secondly, you want to research people like who are authors. Do you write like us, like fun, uplifting women empowering romances, women’s fiction, contemporary, you can say I have a book like Sheila, I have a book like Karen. And what I want you to do is look up your dream agents. All of us authors put our agents in our acknowledgments, thanking them, or they’re on our websites. So that’s how you can research and find your favorite authors that write what you’re writing. Make a list of those agents. And then I want you to, when you reach out in a query letter, keep it short and tight. You guys know these tips before, but I wanna know, you reach out, make it personal. Why you want that agent? You know, why? Is it because she reps Sheila and you think yours is like that? You just need a title, you need a one line log line to get their attention and why you’re passionate about that. Do not attach your manuscript. Yes, unless they ask. Okay, so that’s a way to find an agent.
But you can also self publish. You can self publish with Amazon KDP. I use Ingram Spark. So my books are also in bookstores, Barnes and noble. You can even upload directly to Barnes and noble these days. There’s so many options in self publishing. The bottom line is there’s no reason why you can’t have a book. And we’re gonna give more tips, but I want Sheila, I know a lot of people wanna get into traditional publishing. So five tips, how can they get into indie publish? I mean, traditional publishing. I’m.
Pairing this down at 3 cuz that’s as far as my brain can go. So first of all, though, you get, you want an idea that’s gonna stand out, be a little different. I’ve mentioned this before on some of my own posts. What makes your book just a little bit unique? You want something similar but different. How did you twist that little story to make it stand out? You want that. Okay. You want memorable characters in this book and you want a polished book.
Don’t send this baby half done, half baked out into the universe. Make sure that you have somebody read it. Not your mother, not your best friend, because we’re all biased, but you want an unbiased person to take a look at this. Maybe someone who’s got it, an English degree, who is a teacher, or maybe you’re gonna fork out a little bit of money for an editor, but that is worth the investment to make because it is so competitive in, well, any publishing, but in traditional publishing also. So you have gotta make sure that you have got a product that is ready to roll. So those are my tips. And.
I want what you, she and I were talking. I actually asked her, I said, how did you get a book tour? Because people don’t spend the money. Publishers these days sending you on. I’m in a suite. They gave her a beautiful suite. She’s going all over the country. And I like what you talked about with patience. You built this. You, you, she’s done a lot on her own. So talk about when you’re like a lot of our people watching that wanna sell their book and they’re looking for book tips. Alright, how did you self kind of grassroots it? You went on your own tour. Okay, so.
For writers, as you’re beginning your tour, and by the way, I wanna give up big shout out to my wonderful publisher, Mira, which is an arm of Harlequin, which is an arm of Harper Collins. They’re wonderful and they’re sending authors out now. But I think we’re all got tired of being cooped up with Covid. And so authors are starting into tour again, which is very exciting. If you’re just beginning, guys, you’re gonna have to maybe spend some money and some time, some self. You are your own business and you’ve got to invest in yourself. So if you’re starting out, maybe you’ve got your first book or you’ve, you’re done your first indie book.
Reach out regionally, do a little regional tour, reach out to the bookstore in your hometown, say, hey, can I have a book party? Make sure that you’re, of course, on social media and doing everything you can to promote because we grow our readership. One fabulous reader out of time.
That’s right. And that’s why we’re here. We love, we love book talk, but it’s about connections. We write for you. So we’re here giving tips. Be sure to follow us both. Go on Sheila’s website. Tell me your website.
Yes, Sheila’s place.com. We’ve got the whole tour. She got the.
Whole tour. You can see that she’s gonna be on TikTok. Follow her. She’s hilarious and she’s gonna give more tips. You guys know to follow me. We’re here for you. We’re here for giving writing tips where they’re an author, screenwriter. We got you and we gotta go because we’re one minute late. Alright, see you guys.