Greetings

by G.Parker

It was suggested in a blog a while back that we promote ourselves in unique ways. Self-promotion is pretty much the best way to get the word out now, (unless you can afford major advertising) and so it's up to us to spread the word.

One of the suggestions was to change the message on our answering machines. For some reason that caught my fancy, and I thought it would be hilarious. I'm sure it's something my husband would love to do, and it would probably go something like this:

Greetings! You have reached the humble abode of the fabulously famous and amazingly talented G.Parker, author and illustrator extraordinaire. If you need to actually speak to her and think you can cut through the countless people who are answering her phone calls to reach her, press one. She tries to return all calls within 48 hours, or 48 days, depending on if she's on a book tour or gallery showing. If you are trying to reach one of the other occupants of our home, press two -- but it might take a while for them to get back to you as they are probably gone too. Be sure to check out the G.Parker website, where her latest book release and gallery showings are listed. Also, make sure you enter the contest on her blog so you can win a copy of her latest book, Humility Under Fire -- a Deseret Book bestseller.

Hmmm...That would certainly garner attention, wouldn't it? Yeah...I think people would start burning my books in protest. However, you'll notice that most of us have blogs apart from this one, as well as web sites -- so we are working on promotion. Unfortunately, nothing works like word of mouth and someone telling a friend that they LOVED that book, or you just HAVE to read this! Works every time...

That is how the blog tours came about. Some savvy people came up with the idea that if they could get people to read their books and then review them on their blogs, that those who read them would be interested in reading the book, and so on and so forth.

I'm doing Jeff Savage's new book on my blog. You'll have to check it out...you could win a free copy of his book! Okay, I know that sounds like my phone message, but this is the truth! Honest!