When Barbara Hinske wrote her first romance novel Coming to Rosemont, she knew she wasn’t just writing a book. She was launching a romance series and creating a brand. Little did she know that she would manage to create a mini sensation.Her success is due to the fact that she works just as hard on her marketing as she does on her entertaining fiction.
I feel like I brag about Barbara a lot, but she’s such a great example of how to make this work. Even before the second novel in her Rosemont series—Weaving the Strands—had launched, Barb emailed me the following update:
- My marketing team has built my mailing list to over 5000 (and it is a curated list).
- Hachette has contacted me about advertising on my Downton Abbey Facebook page [a short About write-up links to Barb’s website].
- I’m getting fan mail about Coming to Rosemont every day now — one day last week I got 27 emails!
- I’m doing a joint promotion with the other BookBub Bestselling authors — my idea. They are all traditionally published and one of the PR depts at their publisher is going to refine my content and give us stuff that we can push out all summer long. This could be fabulous.
- I have a possibility of a guest blog post on a blog with a 250,000 email list! (I will NEED you to work with me on that one, for sure.)
- I started a Facebook Bedtime Story on my Barbara Hinske FB page. It’s a mystery, for God’s sake — 200-300 words a day, Mon-Thurs, posting at 3 PM ET. It’s getting great reach and could turn into a novel.
- My website is getting 2000-4000 visits a day.
Stuff is happening! I’m thrilled.
You should be, Barbara. You’re setting an example for the rest of us. Evidence of that hit just this week when Kirkus reviewed Weaving the Strands, a monster achievement since self-published books so often are ignored by reviewers. The condensed version:
Hinske’s (Coming to Rosemont, 2012) second novel [Weaving the Strands, 2014] delves further into the adventures of Maggie Martin, a forensic accountant-turned-reluctant mayor of Westbury, a Norman Rockwell-esque Midwestern town—at least on the surface…Things move along at a pleasantly fast clip, and the dialogue jumps from the page. Evocative details and scenes bring the story to life, such as a big family Thanksgiving dinner and Maggie’s successful (and amusing) foray into online dating.
A charming…romance with a memorable leading lady.
Yay!
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