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Thursday, May 19, 2011

More Author Insight: The 30-second sell

What is the first book you remember reading? Why was it memorable?


"The Goddess Test is a sort of sequel to the myth of Hades and Persephone. A murder mystery, romance, and fantasy all in one, it's what happens when Hades needs to find a replacement for Persephone, but someone keeps killing the candidates." - Aimee Carter, author of The Goddess Test


"The Strangely Beautiful series: Gothic novels about Victorian Ghostbusters powered by Greek Gods. The Magic Most Foul series: Gothic novels about curses, black magic, and young love in danger set in Victorian New York." - Leanna Renee Hieber, author of Darker Still and  The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess.

"True confession: I FAIL at elevator pitches! I'm sure it would be even worse with a stranger on the street. But I'd take a deep breath and tell this person that The Revenant is the story of a girl who lies and steals in order to teach in Indian Territory, thinking it an easy path to independence, but ends up out of her depth at a sophisticated boarding school that just happens to be haunted." - Sonia Gensler, author of The Revenant

"I wouldn’t.  I’m sorry to answer this way.  I just wouldn’t. I can’t imagine it.  The idea of 'selling' my book to a total stranger makes me vomit.  I might share a conversation with a stranger about someone else’s book, however.  Something I think is incredibly fun, like Paul Murray’s Skippy Dies. Or talk about whatever they’re reading." - Randy Russell, author of Dead Rules. 




"If you just found out that everyone you’ve ever known, ever loved, will forget you ever existed—how far would you go to be remembered? Buy A Need so Beautiful, please." - Suzanne Young, author of A Need So Beautiful.




"My book is about three things that are important to lots of girls: football, feminity, and hot boys." - Miranda Kenneally, author of Score


"Shakespeare. New York City. Sexy Faeries. Dangerous Creatures. Magickal Shenanigans. And a horse in a bathtub. What's not to buy?" - Lesley Livingston, author of Tempestuous




"I am the suckiest salesperson on the face of the planet. So I would probably say something really stupid and the person would buy my book just because they felt sorry for the total dweeb." - Amy Plum, author of Die for Me


"I’d say what Melissa Marr said about Personal Demons: 'hot demons, hot angels, nasty demons, and very steamy romance.' Plus I’d add 'a girl, and a choice that could change the world.'" - Lisa Desrochers, author of Original Sin



"Teagan falls for her Guardian Angel, but there's a dark angel with malicious intentions and only she can stop him."   - Jennifer Murgia, author of Lemniscate.

"Buy this book or I’ll kill this kitten. OK, so maybe I won’t kill it. But I will give it a bath. Also, the book: it’s got an intrepid girl from Maine, a herd of goats, a car trunk full of goat poop, vile ferrets named Hob and Jill, midnight softball in a mall parking lot, whoopee pies, Snapple, a sweet boy named Littleberry, a one-act play called 'Dinner at the Tutens’,' mystic Sufi poetry, bullies, comeuppances, pathos, comic relief, awful Aunt Sue, Craven County, North Carolina, and an epigraph from Thoreau: 'Life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward.'" - Steve Watkins, author of What Comes After

"Ugh. I am not really great at selling my own book, which is ironic since I was a sales person as a career for many, many years. Okay. If I had to sell a stranger my book or else my pants would fall down, I’d explain that my book is an emotional read that will take the reader on a journey ofself-discovery. That it might make them look at themselves a little deeper.  (In reality I’d probably ask if they knew any teen girls who loved to read and would tell them to buy a copy for her.)" - Janet Gurtler, author of I'm Not Her

Find out Tuesday if the authors would rather write a book that changed their lives or the life of a single reader!

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