Interview with Author Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

Kathryn has been interested in book marketing since her first book was published in 2002 and her ‘then’ publisher, invited her to take care of her own book signings. She was surprised. Later, she realized that no matter how an author is published: traditionally or self-published, it’s up to the author to market his/her book. She has since published 12 books, and the marketing continues.

Welcome to my blog, Kathryn. Please tell us about Marketing Your Book on a Budget.

Marketing Your Book on a Budget is in its 7^th year. It’s a short read; no fluff, and filled with links and tips on marketing that any author will be excited to find. In it, the writer will find links to book reviewers, blog interviewers, free advertising, and more. In it, they will learn how to market their book without fear, and will discover what to do when rejection comes. Because it will. The most important thing for authors is to keep doing what works – what brings in the new readers, what gets the most views – and let go of what doesn’t.

Can you give us one example that will help an author to spread the word about his or her books?

Best example I can think of. Good reviewers. It often takes hours and hours to find reviewers to review a book, but this is the single most important marketing tip I can share with you. But where do you find them? How do you approach them? And what is their contact information? The answers to these questions can be found in Marketing Your Book on a Budget.

At one of your lectures that I attended, you encouraged authors to submit their books to ACX and turn them into an audiobook. I did it and was so impressed with the outcome. Could you please tell my readers more about ACX, which is a sister company to Amazon, and how one goes about making their book into an audiobook?

I would be glad to. ACX, or Audio Creation Exchange, works with Audible.com, iTunes and Amazon where your audio book is listed and can be purchased. At ACX, you can search out a narrator for your book. I have used Nancy Peterson (who now charges for her services) and Lauren Holladay. While some narrators prefer to be paid upfront for their work, there are others who will split the royalty with you at the time of sale. This is what I have done for 9 of my 12 books. Of course, you can do the audio yourself, but it’s fairly difficult to get the audio just right unless you have a studio in which to produce it.

What kind of research did you do?

Both of these narrators came to me without doing any research. I guess I was lucky. One of my sisters knows Nancy, and Nancy was looking for someone to get her started in narration. A connection was made. Nancy has narrated all of my Parable books.

With Lauren, I’d just joined a new site called, Alignable, and was getting familiar with the small businesses that were a part of that. One day I got a message from Lauren. She was trying to build her new business and wondered if I’d be interested in listening to a sample or two. I did, and we connected. Lauren has worked on all of my mysteries, including my newest YA – Tie Died.

Where is your website and blog so my readers can check out your author interviews and your books that you have written?

You can find me at http://www.ariverofstones.com and http://www.ideacreationspress.com, where you’ll find information in publishing with Idea Creations Press. We currently have 22 authors who have published with us, and are always looking for more.

Thank you so much for this informative interview. I hope many authors check out your book and that it helps them.