#WednesdayWordswithFriends welcomes Laura Tolomei

Good Morning,

Well, this crazy weather finally got to me. I'm fighting some kind of head cold with cough. Hit me yesterday all at once. Taking OTC right now but trust me, if this doesn't clear up within another day or so, it's off to the doctor for a Zpak.

Hope you all are faring better!

Today's guest has shared words with us and been in our spotlight so please welcome Laura Tolomei back to as she shares 3 Ideas for Using Niches to Sell Your Books Fiction Books.....

If you're like me you're always looking for new ways to sell your fiction books, and I'll bet you never thought of niches as a way to do so either have you? I know I didn't until recently. The idea of using niche marketing to sell your books has been around for years, though we usually associate it with non-fiction book marketing. For example, you have a cookbook and every week you post an original recipe on your blog for readers. But how do you use niche marketing to sell fiction books? It's easy than you think. Here are three ideas for using niche marketing to sell your books:

1. Understand your target audience. For example, did you write a romance set in the Regency period? You could target history buffs, people that visit museums that have displays from this period, or those who take tours of areas that were prominent during this period. Once you have your target audience, you could share a photo of a historical place from your book, and then link it back to your blog with an excerpt about the place in question. Knowing your target audience is crucial to figuring out what niche group you want to address.

2. Use blog posts on your blog that will be of interest to your target market. With the example of a regency romance, you could find public domain photos that show clothing for both women and men from the regency period, and share them on social media with a link to your blog post where you talk about the clothing pictured in more detail.

3. What does your main character do for a living? Is she a socialite, or maybe an interior designer, or carpenter, or secretary? Using the idea of an interior designer, then consider posting articles on interior design tips on your blog, along with excerpts where your main character uses one of the tips spoken of.


Using niche's and niche marketing to sell your fiction books is easy if you know how, and there are dozens of different ways to discover niches within your novels that you can capitalize on.

GREAT ideas, Laura! Now please tell us a little more about yourself....

If you really want to know, I was born in 1965 in Rome, Italy, but soon started my travelling career. At the age of five, my parents took me to Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up free and hot like I've never been since. I loved it there and still think of it with nostalgia. Anyway, it was also where I learned English. 

After my African experience, I was ready to tackle the US. I lived in Atlanta, GA, five teen-age years, attending the Crestwood High School, where I started my writing career by publishing a short story Nostalgia on the Crestwood Journal. Very thrilled about discovering my new talent, I went ahead during college, writing for the Emory University journal The Phoenix. Three articles mark my first-and last-steps in journalism, "The peace Corps", "WAMM, Women Against Military Madness," and "Lesbism".

After my American experience, I moved back to Rome, but still kept living from time to time abroad, spending several months in Mumbay India, a country I always felt very close to me in more ways than one.

Today, I write both in Italian and English, mostly fiction of various genres, from fantasy erotica, to mysteries up to plain ordinary life stories.

Feel free to look over my current and future projects by visiting my website www.lallagatta.com.

Thanks for sharing, Laura! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with your writing. Don't forget to leave a comment, friends and enter into my monthly gift card giveaway drawing!

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT

#WednesdayWordswithFriends guest Laura Tolomei

Good Morning!

Four. More. Days. And I'll have made it through another Medicare AEP LOL!

Seriously I am counting the hours and am SO ready to get back to my 1-5 work schedule.

Enough about me though. Have YOU started your Christmas shopping yet? I have. Honestly I think this is the earliest I've ever done so. Still have to get my tree up and house decorated but that's going to have to wait until next weekend. I look forward to sharing this exciting time of year with you....

Meanwhile, Laura Tolomei was in the Spotlight earlier this year so please welcome her back to share some words with us on the publishing industry....

3 Insane but True Things About the Publishing Industry and Book Marketing

The publishing industry changes all the time, and it's often a constant battle to keep up with it when it comes to marketing your books. As publishing has evolved so has my approach to book marketing. Here are three insane but true things about the publishing industry, and book marketing, and some solutions to how to modify your writing and book marketing practices to get around them.

1. There are literally thousands of books being self-published to Amazon and other platforms daily. The way to handle this from a marketing perspective is to have a regular book marketing practice. The only way to compete with those thousands of new authors is to keep your books in the limelight as far as your target market goes as often as possible.

2. There are a lot of published books that are pure crap. That's right, people that have no business publishing are now publishing. They're rewriting public domain books, they're not taking the time to learn their craft, and they're attempting to do everything themselves without proper research into, for example how to make a good book cover, or how to edit a book. The only way to combat this, is to make sure you have a good book cover, and that you have your books professionally edited, or that you learn to edit and to find your own mistakes in your writing.

3. Self-published authors are churning out a book or more a month, and then only charging .99 per full length novel. This trend has made it difficult for traditionally published authors to sell books, but the solution is not for authors and publishers to lower the price of their own books, but rather to step up their marketing and approach it from a quality -vs- quantity perspective.  Readers are willing to pay more for books that are well written, while cranking out a book or more every month, and lowering your book prices may seem like the solution in the end it only leads to burn out, and lost fans because the books aren't well written, oh, and authors who quit writing. By writing quality books and having a regular marketing routine that includes your back list you have a much better chance of staying in the publishing game for the long term.

I hope an understanding of these trends and this advice helps you to stay ahead of the competition and sell more books!

If you really want to know, I was born in 1965 in Rome, Italy, but soon started my travelling career. At the age of five, my parents took me to Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up free and hot like I've never been since. I loved it there and still think of it with nostalgia. Anyway, it was also where I learned English. 

After my African experience, I was ready to tackle the US. I lived in Atlanta, GA, five teen-age years, attending the Crestwood High School, where I started my writing career by publishing a short story Nostalgia on the Crestwood Journal. Very thrilled about discovering my new talent, I went ahead during college, writing for the Emory University journal The Phoenix. Three articles mark my first-and last-steps in journalism, "The peace Corps", "WAMM, Women Against Military Madness," and "Lesbism".

After my American experience, I moved back to Rome, but still kept living from time to time abroad, spending several months in Mumbay India, a country I always felt very close to me in more ways than one.

Today, I write both in Italian and English, mostly fiction of various genres, from fantasy erotica, to mysteries up to plain ordinary life stories.

Feel free to look over my current and future projects by visiting my website www.lallagatta.com.

GREAT advice Laura, thank you for sharing! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings on your writing career.

Hope you enjoyed today's post friends and that you'll check back weekly for more Wednesday Words with Friends and another Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Laura Tolomei & Virtus Sex

Hhhhmmmmm, bet the title of that novel got your attention!

Good Morning Friends,

Today's guest is new to me and our blog and is brought to us by Personalized Marketing Inc. so let's see what it's all about.

This book was previously published as Virtus, The Sex but has been completely revised and doubled in size with the addition of many new scenes.

When Prince Duncan Caldwell loses his way home and knocks on a stranger's door, looking to find shelter, he doesn't know his life is about to change forever. Not because he can't tear his gaze away from the beautiful woman who opens that door, but more so because she's a stranger yet he can't shake the feeling she belongs to him. And discovering she's been banned from his home can't stop the vortex of his feelings nor the truth of his world from crashing down on him.

This is just the beginning of the Virtus Saga, where nothing is as it seems. Not the world, since its all-pervading sex drive hides a scary lack of violence. Not the people, since soul mates Prince Duncan Caldwell and Lord Christopher Templeton share a love that is unrivaled until that fateful knock on Ylianor Meyer's dilapidated shack.

This book starts the love and the passion that entwines fiery sex into this intricate three-way relationship. It's a unique connection, laced with jealousy and violence that are unknown to their world. This is not just another erotic dark fantasy series. This is the making of a trio. Of three remarkable characters that must overcome their uncontrollable lust to face the truth about themselves and their planet if they want to defeat the darkness about to devour them. To be as one whilst three! To share power and love in equal measures. This is their real challenge, the lesson they must learn. Otherwise, how will their world survive?

Excerpt  

First, there was music.

Sweet, mellow and smooth, it filled the void until he drowned in the velvety thickness of the notes, with the ever new and different tunes. And he loved it, even if it wasn’t his creation, taking pride in directing the exquisite songs, also guided by that one voice. A soft whisper ever-present in his system, it didn’t blend with the rest of the sweet melody. It kept to the fore, echoing above all other sounds.

Then there was light.

Not just one. Thousands of colored flashes dispelled the darkness and connected to each note, anticipating or delaying it according to the rhythm, shifting to adapt to the new melody. And he liked to watch how light matched the music, how it delineated the tune even before it became sound. It was all part of the novelty of being the mastermind behind this foreign world, so very different from his original one.

Control was never enough, though. The more I had, the more I craved. That was when the nightmares began. Filled with all sorts of violence, from torture to carnage, they were foul and terrifying, yet also exciting to the point I relished each and everyone like a thirsty man deprived of water for far too long. Best of all, they awakened a completely new pleasure that required immediate fulfillment in increasing dosage. 

Wow, Laura, this sounds like a fascinating series for those who read erotic dark fantasy, now tell us a little about yourself...

If you really want to know, I was born in 1965 in Rome, Italy, but soon started my travelling career. At the age of five, my parents took me to Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up free and hot like I've never been since. I loved it there and still think of it with nostalgia. Anyway, it was also where I learned English. 

After my African experience, I was ready to tackle the US. I lived in Atlanta, GA, five teen-age years, attending the Crestwood High School, where I started my writing career by publishing a short story Nostalgia on the Crestwood Journal. Very thrilled about discovering my new talent, I went ahead during college, writing for the Emory University journal The Phoenix. Three articles mark my first-and last-steps in journalism, "The peace Corps", "WAMM, Women Against Military Madness," and "Lesbism".

After my American experience, I moved back to Rome, but still kept living from time to time abroad, spending several months in Mumbay India, a country I always felt very close to me in more ways than one.

Today, I write both in Italian and English, mostly fiction of various genres, from fantasy erotica, to mysteries up to plain ordinary life stories.

Feel free to look over my current and future projects by visiting my website www.lallagatta.com. Get your copy of Virtus Sex from Amazon.

Remember friends, check back with us weekly for Wednesday Words with Friends and another Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time take care and God bless.

PamT