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Author, Blogger, Speaker and podcast host Sarah Wendell is the guest on Episode 14 of The Author Biz.
Sarah Wendell
There are somewhere between several hundred and a zillion book blogs in existence today, but there are only a few that can move the sales needle. Smart Bitches Trashy Books is one that does, and they will soon be celebrating their 10th anniversary. In that time, they’ve developed a unique style and a loyal and growing audience with a shared love of reading romance novels.
Today’s guest, Sarah Wendell, AKA Smart Bitch Sarah, is the co-founder and general overlady of Smart Bitches Trashy Books. The site describes itself as a website that reviews romance novels from a crew of smart bitches who will always give it to you straight.
Sarah is an author herself, a speaker and the co-host of the DBSA (Dear Bitches Smart Authors) Romance Fiction Podcast.
In this episode, we’ll get a lesson on what top book bloggers do and what authors should expect when dealing with them. I’ve noted some interview highlights below for people looking for information on specific points.
- What is Sarah’s DBSA Podcast?
- What is the focus for the Smart Bitches Trashy Books website? Authors or Readers?
- A brief discussion of the technology behind the site.
- It’s all about the books, but it’s not all books.
- How long did it take to build the vibrant Smart Bitches Trashy Books community?
- Why is the naked male chest such a popular feature of Romance covers?
- How have e-readers changed things for Romance readers, and by extension authors.
- How 50 Shades of Grey gave readers a common language to discuss erotic contemporary romance.
- How even bad reviews can help to sell books.
- How a book can be so bad, that it becomes crazy bad, which is good.
- How to pitch a book blogger to review your book. (Also – Check out this post on the subject at the SBTB website)
- What does Sarah think about whether or not authors should respond to negative reviews?
- How many great books does it take for an author to make it to a reader’s “auto-buy” list? How many sub-par books does it take to fall off that list?
- What things do the most successful authors in the romance genre do that less successful authors do not do?
- What does Sarah think of Kindle Unlimited, both as an author, and as a reader?
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Interview Links:
The Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website – http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/
Sarah’s Personal Website – http://sbsarah.com/
The DBSA Romance Fiction Podcast
Sarah’s Amazon Author Page
SBTB discussion on Pitching for a Review
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Before getting into the business of writing I spent twenty-five years in the technology business as a financial guy, and then as a serial entrepreneur. I know what it takes to start and run a successful business.
Great post!
Another interesting interview Steve. Really related to the Harry Potter/Nero Wolf “world” discussion! My “worlds” are Wonderland and the WWII of “Catch 22.” With respect to “Wonderland,” I think that, like Harry Potter, almost everyone is conversant with the “tropes” of it e.g. Mad Tea party, rabbit hole, “Red” queen (there are actually two, the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen of the chess set–the Tim Burton movie cleverly merges them into a single character with both heart and chess motifs.) But most people are not that aware of the original story, getting their Alice mostly through Disney’s mashup(s) of the stories. Anyway, I will be shouting about Alice’s Adventures (and my animated picture books version Alicewinks) through 2015, which is the 150th anniversary of the publication.
Hi David – Thanks for listening and for chiming in. It sounds like you’ve got two very different story worlds. Wow – the 150th anniversary? I had no idea it had been that long since it was published. The anniversary sounds like a great opportunity for marketing your work. Best of luck and thanks again for stopping by and commenting.