Sherry D. Shumard is the  published author of a series of books titled: Heartbroken Promises, Heartbroken Promises 2 and I’m currently working on Heartbroken Promises 3.

Welcome to Book Marketing Buzz, Sherry.  Can we begin by having you tell us a little about your book?

The book “Heartbroken Promises 2” is about the main character Vicky Wainright who decides to move down south on an island to be near her sister Miranda who just got married to a very rich and handsome man after experiencing a bad break up with a cheating ex-boyfriend. She is torn between two men- one may have been in on her kidnapping and the other one who has a shady past. She experiences many ups and downs and has to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. She must make the right decision because it will affect her future.

What is the first thing you did to promote your book once your publisher accepted your manuscript?

The first thing that I did was to contact the local radio stations, the local newspapers, and the local television stations. I had to get my book out there so that everyone locally would know about it.

If you had to pick just one book marketing tool that you’ve used to promote your book, which would you say has been the most effective?

I think that the local television network was the most effective because I had some people that I knew coming up to me and telling me that they were surprised and excited to have seen me on television. The local television station even scanned and displayed the front and back cover of my book and put that on the air. They were awesome and so was the local reporter who interviewed me.

Do you do more promoting online or offline and which do you prefer?

Since I’m getting ready to go on tour with pumpupyourbookpromotion.com I will be doing a lot of promoting online. I guess I will have to wait and see at the closing of my tour as to which method I prefer.

Do you use social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to promote your books and have you had any success with it?

I’ve just recently had to update my Facebook account and I signed up and learned how to twitter. It is exciting meeting new people and other authors online. I don’t get out much except to go to work so it is great being able to connect with others online.

Do you own a blog and how often do you update it?  Did you set up your blog solely to promote your book and what is its effectiveness?

I don’t own a blog and don’t know too much about blogging. I will have to have someone help me set one up if I ever decide to have one. On my website when I set it up there was already some blogs on there and I need to delete them and set up my own even though they do seem interesting to me. I would like to set up a blog to talk about my books and also to share with others some advice about becoming a published author among other interests as well.

Do you recommend authors getting publicists to help them promote their books?  Do you have one?

I think that publicists can help out authors tremendously from what I’ve heard. It is really hard doing the publicity yourself because some news media don’t take you seriously. It is better to have a publicist who is very professional trying to get authors on national television, national radion, and  in national newspapers because it will reach more people. I wish I could find a publicist who will help me to get more publicity because I can’t do it alone.

If an author prefers to do it alone rather than hire a publicist, where should they  start?

I think that they should start with the local media first like the local radio station, local newspapers, and the local television networks. After that, then an author may want to try to go online to gain even more attention.

Thank you for coming Sherry!  We wish you much success!

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