Month: June 2015

Face-to-Face with Readers

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

Last weekend I was privileged to have been invited to speak at a Christian women’s retreat in beautiful Montana. The organizers encouraged me to bring some of my books to sell and sign during the weekend.  I was a little insecure about shipping the cartons of books because I was afraid I would have to bring them all back home with me. I’m still not too confident when it comes to promoting and selling my work.

Well, I’m happy to say I did sell most of the books I took with me (phew!), but even if I hadn’t sold a single one, the blessings of being with those women and their encouraging words about my speaking and writing were priceless.

If you get a chance to meet with your readers, please don’t let your insecurities or fears of “tooting your own horn” hold you back. I’ll be feeling the glow of warmth and inspiration from last weekend for days and weeks to come.

Nonfiction

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

I currently have one weekly Christian devotional guide published and am working on a daily version. These are written under my full name, Jonna Hawker Turek, and are taken mostly from my weekly inspirational blog, Power Walking with Jonna, on WordPress.

devotional guideWriting and promoting nonfiction is completely different from producing my novels. In the novels I can try on and discard one persona after another, but nonfiction calls for authenticity and transparency. With one genre I exercise my imagination and with the other my character.

Publishing anything makes a writer vulnerable, but I am learning to take the critical reviews of my fiction without flinching; looking for the helpful within the hurtful. I haven’t promoted my devotional guide since publishing it a few months ago and I haven’t received any reviews, yet, but I’m afraid I will be completely defenseless when the unflattering ones inevitably do arrive.

This writing game isn’t for sissies.

With a little (or a lot) of help from my friends

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ 8 Comments

I belong to an online support group for indie authors, and the wonderful folks who read them, called The Rave Reviews Book Club. The driving force behind this smaller, more intimate Goodreads-type group is Nonnie Jules, a powerhouse of energy dedicated to supporting and promoting her fellow authors.

This month I have the privilege of being named Member of the Month, and being a focus of social media support from the others in the group. It is a humbling experience and seems to be having an impact on the downloads and sales of my books. The Amazon ranking of my latest release, The First Ladies Club, has jumped over 600,000 places during the first week of the month.

I often read experts who say Twitter and Facebook don’t have much impact on fiction sales, but when it comes to support from other authors, they can’t be beat. At least not with such active promoters as those in the Rave Reviews Book Club.

Check them out here raveand if you like to read fresh new works, or if you are a writer who wants to network with both other authors and impassioned readers, join the group.