Saturday, November 29, 2014

Interview with Christina George ~ Author of The Publicist




Synopsis: Can one woman change an age-old institution like publishing? Probably not, but Kate Mitchell sure wants to try. As a publicist with a large, respected New York publishing house, Kate finds herself at the mercy of a broken publishing system, books that don’t sell, and author egos that are often, well, as big as the island of Manhattan.
Enter the star editor, MacDermott Ellis: Tall, handsome, charismatic, married, and ready to save the day. Then there's Allan Lavigne, once a revered author - now as forgotten as last year's best sellers and his nephew Nick: Tall, gorgeous, sweet, single, and ready to sweep Kate off her feet. Kate wants to do the right thing but her hormones seem to be driving her decisions.
As Kate tries to navigate the landmine of publicity, over-the-top author expectations, and the careful dance of “I’m sorry, your book isn’t on the bestseller list this week,” she also finds authors who are painfully overlooked by a publisher wanting more romance and sex, more celebrities, and more scandal.
Welcome to the world of publishing. The ego has landed.


I am so excited to share this interview with author, Christina George with you all.  Tomorrow, I will share my review of The Publicist….hint, I LOVED it!



SBN: What contributes to making a writer successful? 

Christina George: This is going to sound sort of “DUH” but write a good book. That’s it. At the end of the day you can throw thousands of dollars are marketing but none of it will matter if your book isn't good. Second, be realistic with your goals. Sure, I’d love it if HBO called and said “Hey, The Publicist would make a good series.” But whether or not that will ever happen is anyone’s guess. Will I be disappointed if it doesn't? No, not really. I try to stay focused on realistic things. For example, if I got three emails from readers reading this interview who said they loved what I had to say or loved the book – I’d be stoked. Three readers who love you could turn into 10 or 30 or 300 who love you if they help spread the word. That’s how it starts: small. Small rocks.

SBN: Do you have any advice for writers? 

Christina George: Yes, I think it’s that you should really be vigilant with your marketing. You know stuff takes time – I always say that. But the key to a solid marketing plan is an author who is engaged in their own success. When you are engaged you’re commenting on blogs, you’re dialoging with your reader and you are careful about who you hire to do your marketing. Look, no one can do miracles. I’m on this book tour and it’s great but will I sell a thousand books? Probably not. That’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it for exposure. Get enough exposure and you’ll sell books. But don’t expect every “ping” you get to warrant a big blockbuster sale because it may not.

SBN: What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? 

Christina George: I think keeping the story coherent, frankly. I met an author years ago who writes 50 books a year, frankly I don’t know how she keeps all the characters straight.

SBN: Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?  

Christina George: YES it did! It taught me that writing, good writing isn't easy. Look, I don’t know if you’ll read my book and say “wow, that’s good writing” or encourage me to keep my day job. But my editor loved it (and I didn't pay her to say that) and some of the initial reviews have come back positive so to that end, I think I did a good job. But it’s hard work, don’t let anyone tell you any different.

SBN: What movie do you love to watch? 

Christina George: I love, love, love Love Actually. I think it’s just such a good and feel good movie.

SBN: I don't believe I have seen Love Actually.  I will need to watch that movie!

SBN: Sometimes it’s so hard to keep at it - What keeps you going? 

Christina George: I really do love what I do. You know you never want to get into publishing for the money – you do it because you love it. Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life – as they say.

SBN: If you could do any job in the world what would you do? 

Christina George: I love what I’m doing now, but I’d love to work in film. I have cousins who do film editing and I’ve always had a knack for cobbling together good videos so I’d love to try that.

SBN: I think I would have to say a very famous author or a famous scrapbooker!  

SBN: What is your next project? 

Christina George: Glad you asked! I just finished up with book three in The Publicist series called Climax, and I’m very excited. It launches December 15, 2014.

SBN: That is fantastic news.  I can't wait to read the second book, Shelf Life. I hope that is due out soon on Audible!

Look for my review on The Publicist tomorrow and thanks to iRead Book Tours for setting up this interview with Christina George!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.