New Year, New You At Book Marketing

  

A new year is upon us. Will something change, other than the calendar, for you, when it comes to your book marketing? 

I believe the answer is yes, provided you believe that, and commit to dedicating yourself to making that yes your reality.

To make a change, you must set goals and define the change that you want to realize. Be specific.

Set deadlines for each of the steps that you will need to take.

Identify your resources, assets, and network that you will need to lean on for both moral support and substantive help.

Have an unshakeable desire and a desperate need to change — and remind yourself of why you are seeking to accomplish something every time that you feel challenges, burdens, or barriers in the way of your goals.

Make book marketing a higher priority in your life.

Map out your book marketing plan — budgeting your time, money, and mindshare to get the job done.

It is time to acknowledge that you:

* Did not do what was needed to market your book successfully so far. You need to do more.

* Failed to succeed at what you have done. You need to do it better and try harder.

* Should do things differently and do things that are different from what you tried. You need to take new approaches to what you tried to do — and to simply do new things.

* Need to hire help and to outsource some of your book marketing.

* Must not waste time thinking of what can’t be — or regretting what has been — and instead, focus on executing what still could be done.

 

Make this year a great one for your writing career. May the new year bring in a new energy, strategy, and execution of your book marketing efforts!

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2024.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a 

Why Do You Lack Amazon Book Reviews?

Authors are bewildered, angry, and sad that their books fail to garner a substantial number of Amazon customer book reviews. Many authors struggle to get at least 40-50 reviews. Why?

It is a good question.

Assuming your book is decent, and you have asked for reviews from dozens of friends, family, work colleagues, neighbors, church members, alumni, and even your favorite Starbucks barista, you may want to pull your hair out when you see only three people left reviews after the book’s launch two months ago. So why don’t people that we know post a review?

Here are the reasons or excuses that you must contend with:

* Your book seems too long to read
* Not their kind of book
* They don’t like the book
* They never read books
* Don’t know what to say
* Never left a review before
* Don’t want to be the first one to leave a review
* Feel rushed for time
* They leave a rating instead
* They don’t like you so much

The percentage of people who read a book that they purchased on amazon who leave a review is tiny. Some authors have thousands of amazon reviews, but they are the exception. Even authors who may have sold millions of copies of a book may only see that two percent of their readers left reviews.

Authors simply need to ask, beg, trade, and pray for book reviews. Some will even pay for them.

Get anyone you know — and anyone they know — to:

* Make a validated purchase on amazon

* Post the book review

* Ask for them to recruit friends, spouses, relatives, and colleagues.

* Show everyone the few steps needed on how to actually post a review.

Harass them until they do it. Book reviews are vital to a book’s success, so do all that you can to get readers to post them.

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2024

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog

To Marvel At Language & Literacy

 

 

Many cultures and nations over the many years of humanity have developed in parallel, often making similar, if not identical, discoveries of how to communicate, build, and stay safe. Numbers, languages, and tools developed independently across the world. They were different in each society or nation, of course, but similar enough.  

Eventually, the world was no longer in isolation. Travel by ships, trains, planes, cars, and horses brought cultures and countries together. Information got shared, and the evolution of independent systems now gets nurtured by outside influencers.  

Finding rules that could be applied to language helped everyone to communicate. The discovery or invention of words and language is one of the crucial steps in the social, civil, and cultural development of humanity.  

Could the creation or evolution of modern-day American English have been altered if our history went on a different course? 

Certainly. If early French or Spanish colonists had their way, we wouldn’t speak English at all. If we didn’t break away from the British, we never would have launched Webster’s Dictionary, with its altering of the British language. Heck, if no one came to invade current-day America, we’d be speaking one or more Native American languages and dialects.  

There will be future changes to our language. Wars, technology, and time will demand it. We really do not speak the same language as was spoken in 1624, or even 1824, for that matter.  

Language serves a purpose -- to communicate what we think, feel, want, need -- and to convey what we will do or have done. We need language to trade, to travel, and to pass along knowledge. Could something befall us that either destroys our physical ability to give or receive language? 

A language is also a piece of culture and history. It is not a just a tool, like a hammer, which serves a specific purpose. No, language itself is an art form and a piece of our ancestry. It changed and grew as society changed and grew. There is a beauty to English and to all languages. Welcome a long way from using symbols, cave paintings, and grunts.  

But language has its limits. It can only state or reflect what is known. It can’t explain what is not or what could be or what currently is that is not yet visible to us. We can’t, to a degree, even think of many things that we don’t have words yet to describe. In that sense, language limits us, forever keeping us contained to reflect only what we know, and little else beyond that.  

Many people enjoy the humor of language -- double entendre, sarcasm, and malapropisms. We like rhymes, onomatopoeias, and the poetic way of saying something. We like word riddles and games related to letters and words. We have the building blocks of what society could turn into, if only we could arrange the puzzle of words to form a truth not yet discovered.  

Words don’t exist, however, just to hold spelling bees, Scrabble competitions, or to do crossword puzzles and word jumbos. They are like the elements in the Periodic Table, each one a unique building blocking for the world not yet discovered. 

I love words and the power of writing. All authors do, too. It is time to get the rest of the population fully engaged in the English language. The sooner everyone can be on the same page of communication, the better we’ll be at exchanging or even developing new ideas. 

We must improve on the stunning rate of literacy in America. According to studies cited by www.barbarabush.org, 130 million Americans, age 16-74, lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over 3.9 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brian Feinblum now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).  This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, he has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Interview With Children’s Short-Story Author Etienne Labuschagne

                                

         

 

1.      What is your new book, Bedtime Stories For Clever Kids, about? It’s is a collection of stories that are meant to entertain kids and parents at bedtime while introducing high level topics for discussion. Stories are a wonderful gateway into the imagination and the mind of a child. These stories take children to places they would never think to go, like a monastery in the Middle Ages, seen through the eyes of a dog. They are taken to tall ships at anchor in Table Bay in the 1800s, to listen to a conversation between figureheads on the prow about the most difficult job on earth. Or to cleaning stained glass windows high up in a cathedral, only to learn that we are windows to the world too.

 

2.      What inspired its creation? I have been writing stories for my grandchildren since 2017. But during Covid I realized that parents in lockdown with small kids deserve a break at bedtime. So, I started sending stories to everyone I knew that were in lockdown with young kids. And they loved the stories. They aren’t typical. Some are quirky. Some are whimsical. And some are exciting and full of adventure. But in between are hidden deep issues of tolerance, family, validation and kindness. I thought the stories can do much more with a wider audience.

 

3.      You enjoyed painting since childhood and your book is filled with numerous paintings. However, by trade, you have practiced law for 36 years and were just appointed a judge of the High Court in South Africa. What do you enjoy most when you are painting? Whether I paint, address a court, write a judgment or write a children’s story I am creating images. The difference is the instrument being used. Whether it is my voice, my pen, or my paintbrush I create pictures in the minds of others. So, the same creative process finds expression in different forms. But, painting is therapy, and is, not unlike the practice of law, an exercise in the art of reduction. You start with broad brush strokes and end with detail. The greatest difference is the joy of line, light and color.

 

4.      The stories in this book were initially written in anticipation of having grandchildren, of which you now have six. What were you thinking when you started to craft them? While some stories were written before the grandchildren arrived, some of them have become the main characters in their own stories My stories are sometimes written with a specific child in mind. Bear in mind that this book only has eleven stories, while there are many more already written and illustrated. When I wrote the first stories, I was hoping to be a voice in the mind of my grandchildren in the form of a story, in case I never met them. It was a conversation I wished to have with my grandchildren.

 

5.      During the pandemic, you wrote and disseminated stories for free to parents with small children. What was their reaction, both to the content and your kind gesture? I had a general outpouring of appreciation and thanks. And a request for more. Some parents commented that they had never seen stories like these and they and their kids loved the quirkiness. And the parents said some stories often had to be reread.

 

6.      You believe that children can handle serious and difficult topics. What types of topics do you tackle in your book? Giving a list of themes can sound a bit heavy, but the topics are introduced with a light hand and in a fun manner. The themes, other than those I have mentioned, include the different forms of freedom, discovering dimensions, breaking new boundaries, jealousy, adoption, motherhood, love, validation and self-acceptance

 

7.      But, when parents read your stories aloud to their small children, they experience them on a different level. Through your sense of humor, does the adult get a different message or point of understanding? The humor is there because I want to entertain the parents and the kids- and myself. Word play is a rich source of fun. For a child a gosling is a small goose. For the mother it might be Ryan Gosling. I keep both kids and parents in the loop. Inside jokes aren’t just entertainment. It is to remind parents that heavy topics don’t need to be heavy. Keeping it light promotes receptiveness on the part of the children and helps the medicine go down. 

 

8.      You grew up in a South Africa under apartheid. What was it like for you? As a child on a sugar estate, I was clueless. My brother and sister played with Zulu kids on the farm where we lived before I was born. They both speak the language. But I grew up in a segregated area unaware of what I was missing out on. Only in high school in Durban did I get exposure to black kids due to a leadership program of the Rotary Club. It was a revelation that I grew up in a different world to them, just a few kilometers apart. It was so unnatural- and so unfair. But it was impossible to get a proper perspective if everything you hear is filtered information. It was only at university that I could make up my own mind. 

 

9.      Where do things stand, now, some 30 years since that form of destructive rule ended? I see city schools as the melting pot for the new South Africa. I think that kids can now form friendships at school without noticing race. Initially there was a language barrier, but English has become the lingua franca in most of South Africa, and even in the courts. There is a great improvement in race relations. There are setbacks, but there is a cohesion in the nation. South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010- it was a wonderful time when divisive politics went quiet and we discovered as a nation that we actually like one another. It is a great country in so many respects. When we won the Rugby World Cup for the fourth time in 2023, there was an outpouring of national pride that is wonderful to see. Rugby in particular, has been a healing balm to South Africa. And it started in 1995 when Nelson Mandela wore the Springbok jersey when handing over the cup to the victorious South African captain in their first World Cup win. 

 

10.  You write of freedom, the environment, tolerance, and self-worth. How can a child process these things at a young age? Stories can prepare kids for when life happens. Picture this-A child is on a beach that is littered with garbage. Or sees a river with scum on the water. The child sees these things. So, talk about the environment. Or a boy returns from kindergarten upset by being bullied-by a girl. These life events are gateways to topics being introduced like respect, boundaries, standing up for yourself, and self-worth. A story about it can prepare the child without the trauma. 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” 

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, 

Are Word Police Sometimes The Criminals?

Everyone has their language pet peeves, those pieces or chunks of linguistic malfeasance that assault our ears and quickly urge us to police the infraction. Stoning is out, but how do we ensure that the abuse of language, at least in our presence, is not to repeat itself? 

Maybe we are the problem and should be more permissive of language missteps. Perhaps these are not even mistakes and we are the ones who need to adjust to a new day, a time and place and where what used to be a no-no is now acceptable, maybe even preferable to many.  

It sounds like an upside-down world, but it’s worth noting that language is not static. Words come and go. Spellings change. Even definitions. Punctuation, too, has not remained the same forever. But when you are thrust unto the cusp of grammatical blasphemy - or mere change - it is a challenging moment.  

To love the language is to want to fervently protect it, to ensure that we can understand, respect, and acknowledge others. At a minimum, we accept situational language and grammar. Texting is far different than speaking in court. A social setting has its own communication cues than those in a workplace environment.  

We are different one-on-one than when in a group, and we certainly have separate vocabularies - including jargon and slang for a particular time, place, or industry, from sports lingo to Wall Street parlance, from Brooklyn gangsters to discussions by clergy in the Vatican. 

But what do we do when what we have or read just looks plain wrong, stupid, or confusing? To what judge do we bring our grievance - and to what sentencing shall be fair punishment for these transgressions?  

What to do with a double negative? Ain’t? Irregardless? Or expressions such as: “more perfect” or “are quite unique” or “I could care less.”  

After reading an entertaining book, Says Who? A Kinder, Funnier, Usage Guide for ‘Everyone Who Cares About Words by Anne Curzan, Ph.D., I got to thinking about her argument that perhaps we need to be more permissive of language usage modifications, even when they seem like aberrations and ripe for criticism.  

She understands wordsmiths because she is one. As the dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, she’s also the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature, Linguistics, and Education. 

She writes: “Wordies take the time to figure out what they’re hearing or seeing on the page. They appreciate clarity and precision in language and recognize that there are many ways to attain it. They also know that occasionally, ambiguity is our friend! 

Wordies, as part of caring deeply about language, appreciate diversity in language usage as part of the diversity of speakers and see creative play with language a surprising grammatical construction or a new way of using a word they haven’t seen before - as a reflection of human creativity. And like the trained bird-watcher, they study the new usage of bird, to understand what it is and how it works and where it came from, rather than immediately trying to kill it.”  

The bottom line of her book is that we must respectfully listen to each other. Together, we must sort through the options and flexibility our communications provide us. The goal is to be more respectful and inclusive for more people, while still looking to obey, honor, and cherish historical standards -- at least most of the times.  

So, word police must navigate new waters. She writes:  

“Sometimes deep care about the language can take the form of policing other people’s language - or going grammando. The policing of other people’s language can be celebrated as a way to protect the language, an understandable impulse… The people who really care about the details of language are strict about their own and other’s usage. But as you have seen, some of the rules you learned about what is correct in language are not well-founded or inclusive of the change and variation that make a living language vibrant.”  

Although she recognizes the issues many have with using ever-changing PC language, such as when some tried to use personhole for manhole or Latinx for Latino and Latine, she seems to defend the project to change lots of words in the hopes of sounding inclusive.  

Anyone over 40 struggles with the use of pronouns, just as anyone over 65 struggles with technology.  

Many people struggle with being PC because they will say: 

“Who says that word is better than another?”

“What’s wrong with the now-banned word?”

“Does the new word have ambiguity or room for misunderstanding?”

“Why should I use another word when no offense was intended with the original one?”

“How can I keep up with so many new words and words that replace the replacement words?”

“Some of the new words seem over the top.”

“If I don’t say one’s preferred word, I can get cancelled. How fair is that?” 

It’s an on-going debate of what is ‘correct’ vs ‘understandable’ vs ‘wrong and confusing,’ and the challenge to improve our language without altering its uses rages on. Our language, even when bastardized and distorted, is a beautiful thing. No matter how you use or abuse English, can we all agree that all Americans should speak English? 

Right, even that has its opponents. Good luck on finding a conclusion about anything. 

...

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over 3.9 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brian Feinblum now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).  This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, he has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Interview With Caribbean Family Saga Author Denise Haynes

 

            

           1.  You were a lawyer for 16 years. Why have you now dedicated yourself to writing?

I’ve always been a writer.  It’s been a lifelong ambition to have a published work. Siblings tell me that I was only 5 or 6 when I first declared this.  I remember reading books by Enid Blyton when I was a child and being in awe of the way a book could transport me into another world and allow me to experience the adventures of other children.  That’s probably why I made this declaration. That desire has endured for my entire adult life, and I have in fact always written pieces, even while working as a teacher and a lawyer, so the transition to more or less full-time writing was an easy and obvious one.  In fact, while I was a teacher, I saw it as preparation for being a writer, and while I was a lawyer, I also saw the discipline of legal writing as part of the general practice and art of writing.

 

2. What is your debut novel about? The novel is about a family, viewed from the inside by both a father and the children.  The father tells of the changes brought about in the life of a couple as they become parents, try to preserve their individuality, and take on the responsibilities of parenthood.  He also talks about the changes in his wife as she became a mother and about his own personal challenges and how he saw each of his children.  Then the children respond with their versions, filling in the stories told by the father and revealing a little about themselves.  The reader sees several sides to of this family.

 

3. What inspired you to write it? During the pandemic, family seemed to be at the forefront of my thoughts.  I wasn’t able to see my family as I had done so frequently before, as we live in several different locations- USA, Trinidad, Venezuela, Barbados.  Friends all lamented this situation as well in terms of their own families and when I decided to use the space given by the pandemic to write, it seemed an obvious theme.  The book really flowed very well, and I began to realize that I had written pieces of it many years before.  In a sense it was the book of my dreams, the book I was writing and preparing to write all my life up to that point.

 

4. How much of you and your life are in these pages? I like to say that it’s an alternate version of my family.  There are definitely autobiographical elements, but also elements from families observed and families that I knew. I remember asking my sister about an event that is recounted in the book and she told me that it was actually something that happened to a family in the neighborhood.  I was very young and seem to have integrated it into my version of the family story, but it was in fact lived by my family as observers.  Some of the outcomes were also changed in telling the story and some of the personalities were definitely different from the ones that emerged in writing the book.

 

5. What was it like growing up in Trinidad, the youngest of 10 children? Trinidad was and is a very creative country.  As a child, in my neighborhood, there was an air of artistic excitement- someone was recording an album, someone else was writing poems, others were dancers, painters.  I grew up with this artistic vibrancy around me and drank it all in. Trinidad is the place where steel pan as an instrument was created and innovations in the instrument and the music created for it were always happening. Apart from that, as the youngest of 10 children, I lived in a world where everyone knew me and my parents, I was known as the last of the brood.  I spent lots of time observing the older siblings and trying to understand life from what I observed. When I went to a new school at the age of 11, it was the first time that I wasn’t known by reference to my family, as the last of the brood and it was a life-changing experience.  On a day-to day level in the family, there were lots of pranks and practical jokes, and my siblings were always trying to outdo each other in this regard.  A successfully executed prank would certainly be followed, even if a few weeks later, with one that tried to outdo it.

 

6. Your story takes place on the island nation of Trinidad. How does that setting help the story unfold?   I think the story could not have unfolded anywhere else.  The heavy Roman Catholic influence in the country is the background for the story, and the norms of society and the influence of the church are all very much part of life in Trinidad back in the day.  Trinidad was also growing-up, just as the children in the family were doing.  In the course of the story the country went from British Rule to Independence to Post- Independence.   The story touches on the cocoa-planter culture, which is unique to Trinidad.  While cocoa is grown in a few Caribbean islands, Trinidad was really the country with the largest scale of cocoa production at a given time.  The vibrancy of Trinidad culture also created the perfect setting for the story-Talent Show- in a nation where talent was abundant, and the people loved displaying their talent. They still do.

 

7. Your book asks the reader: “Do you really know your parents?” What do you mean by that?  We all look at our parents as figures of authority, as providers, as role models even.  But do we ever think of who they would be without children? Who they were before the children and who is that individual inside of the parent? What do the parents talk about when they’re alone?  What are their private jokes? When I became a parent, I realized that my children probably would not reconcile who I was as a young adult with the person who was their mother. Being a role model and an example for my children meant that they didn’t necessarily see all of me as a person, although I never hid myself from them.  A child’s world doesn’t easily accommodate a broader view of the parents. I’ve also noted that couples sometimes get divorced when the children leave.  It’s as if they assume a different persona once the major parenting is behind them.

 

8. How does your book force readers to reflect differently on their families? I think that the different perspectives offered in the book help readers to think of and question how they see or saw their families- as a unit and in terms of parents and siblings.  We often take our parents for granted, and focus on the support and guidance they provide or don’t provide, without knowing, understanding or even reflecting on why they do what they do.  In reading the book I think readers might recognize some of the family dynamics and revisit their own families with the benefit of hindsight.

 

9. There is the death of a child in your book. How does a family come to grips with that? Even with acceptance after many years, it is an event that draws a line in the sand.  Those who were around for the event think in terms of a timeline that’s before or after the death.  Those who come after, know about the event as a loss for the family, even if they weren’t yet born and only hear about it as a story.  Somehow, it feels as if the pain of the event is conveyed to the younger ones who were not yet born when it happened, and is remembered by the older ones who were alive when it happened, probably because of the deep loss experienced by the parents, and the sadness in the household.  It is an event that defies our notions of life and death- parents aren’t meant to bury children and so on. Eventually, the family comes to grips with it as time passes, with support of family and friends and to some extent through their faith, whether they are religious or not.

 

10. There are secrets hidden by your characters. What happens when some of them get exposed? Exposure of secrets always changes things. When some of the secrets get exposed, the reader gets a more complete view of the events and understands the perspective of the parent and the child.  It’s almost like the effect of connecting the dots- the picture is clearer after the dots have been filled in, after the secrets are exposed.  Some of the revelations explain an event that occurs or a personality that was introduced in an earlier section of the book and the reader can understand the other side of the story when the secrets are revealed.  It’s what happens in life so often.  As a lawyer I was always struck by how each party in a lawsuit thought that their version of events was complete and true, without ever considering another perspective or a detail that could change everything.  Then, when a hidden fact came to light, it changed everything.

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” 

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog