book release |

Flawed Perfection (Beautifully Broken, #1)

Bobby Beckerson was the American All-Star hockey player–he was the spitting image of perfection to his family. Goofy, sweet and undeniably gorgeous, he had everything but the one girl he wanted: River Ahlers.
River Ahlers is successful in everything but love. She’s been in love with Adam Beckerson since they were kids. Worst of all she’s stuck right in the middle of the brother’s dueling over everything and anything, and she doesn’t even know she’s the ultimate prize.
Adam Beckerson was a boy with a guitar, a smile that sunk girl’s hearts and a stone wall around his own. He was anything but perfect, and no matter how hard he tried he was nothing compared to Bobby. Sweet, damaged, with boyish good-looks, no body thought Adam loved anyone but himself.
Bobby loved River, River loved Adam and Adam only loved himself–or so everyone thought. Then one night everything changes, and as it threatens to destroy everyone involved a tragedy strikes that will break them all…

Well, not quite. I am selling great book accessories and signed copies of BOTH novels on my Etsy store at affordable prices. (Yes, Walking in the Shadows is now available as a paperback and will be available shortly as an e-book in preparation for the hurricane that is bee-lining it’s way towards CT. The last time we were hit with a hurricane we were without power for a week, so instead of making the readers wait longer, I am releasing early).

On the topic of selling your soul–marketing as an author. I see time and time again posts on forums where authors are saying that they are just not comfortable promoting their books. I’ve tried to look at it as promoting myself as a person, as an author who cares. I suppose that I am lucky that before I published I was already in sales, and doing quite well. Last year I was the top performer in sales referrals at the bank I work at. I had over 200 solid referrals, and they were referrals that were right for the customer. What I have found makes a successful sales person are several elements, but above all it’s courage and drive. Courage? Yes, you have to be brave enough to speak up and talk about what your selling, but you also have to have the courage to own up to what you are selling (there will be a post in the future “Selling VS Owning”) and then to keep going until you are successful. The best part of hearing “No” is the fact that it means you tried, and eventually that “No” will be a “Yes” . If you never try you will never know, and worst of all, you will not gain the experience that is required to be successful. This tenant of business can easily be applied to being an author; no author, at least that I know of, has ever had the first agent, the first publisher, they contacted jump all over them and make them successful. I also (possibly this is my independent spirit) don’t believe that the publisher makes the author successful; it’s the readers that they touch. You can have amazing writing skills and touch absolutely no one because you haven’t written anything that someone will care about. You can be a so-so author and write something that changes the world because you captured the human element. Writing is about being human, and touching the human soul. You can’t do that if you don’t put yourself out there and sell yourself. There are different ways of marketing one’s self as an author; there are authors that are branded by their book, and there are authors who are branded by their writing. If you are an author who only plans to write, say vampire novels, then there is no problem letting your book brand you. If you, like myself, don’t write just one genre, and don’t want to be known for one genre, then you want to brand you. You want to market you. This isn’t to say that you don’t market each novel it’s self, but you also allow people to see who you are behind the book. Now, this is my opinion, and it could very well be wrong, but my marketing strategy is based on the belief in branding myself as an author who cares and wants to inspire young writers. I can officially say that by the end of this month I have finally sold over 100 copies of In Between Seasons. I’m not sure how that measures up in levels of success. I think it’s a very slow start, but I am going to keep doing this until the wheels fall off, and I hope you will continue to join me on my journey. I am, Cassandra Giovanni, Young Adult Author, and hopefully, a successful marketing guru in the future.