GEORGETOWN —
New author Sherry Shumard drops the names of best-selling writers as if they were lifelong friends. Paula Deen. Nancy Thayer. Claire Cook.
She can honestly say she’s “toured” with some famous authors, and they’re friends with her on Facebook.
Shumard and other authors — both beginners and well-known — have joined the online book-promotion agency, Pump Up Your Book. She’s “on tour” for the month of June.
Cook, author of the book that became a movie, “Must Love Dogs,” and Thayer, author of 20 novels, including The Hot Flash Series, will tour in July. And celebrity cook and author Deen will tour in August.
Shumard can say she’s in pretty good company.
“There are tons of best-selling authors here (online) and I’m friends with them,” she said. “It’s really cool.”
She added, “They think I’m already a famous author.”
Shumard would like to become a household name and have her romance series made into a TV show or movie.
She’s promoting her most recent book, “Heartbroken Promises 2.” That book takes up where her first one left off, and she’s started on book No. 3.
To become well-known, however, takes a lot of work.
“If you don’t do promotion, you don’t sell any books,” she said. “I’m excited to finally promote my book.”
That’s difficult to do when you’re raising three children and holding down a job; she works at Sygma Network.
Her husband, Jesse, owns a lawn care and construction business, and has been too busy to follow up on his own book, “Missions Through Adventure,” an action-comedy.
Their books were self-published through iUniverse, a print-on-demand company, about three years ago, and “Heartbroken Promises 2” is through PublishAmerica.
Her first book, “Heartbroken Promises,” is about a woman who runs away from her cheating ex-boyfriend to take a job on an island. However, she ends up running for her life.
In the second book, that woman’s sister travels to the island for a wedding, but ends up being the victim of a kidnapping.
As part of Pump Up Your Book, information about her book is available through blogs and her interview gets picked up by newspapers, including a Chicago-area paper. It’s also being promoted through YouTube and Twitter.
She doesn’t know yet if the promotion has resulted in more books being sold, as it’s been only a couple of weeks. The tour ends Friday.
On the Net
-- At http://www.pumpupyourbook.com type Sherry Shumard’s name into the search box
-- http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ lists the authors who are touring this month.
-- http://asthepagesturn.wordpress.com has an interview with Shumard.
-- Go to http://www.youtube.com and type June 2010 Authors on Virtual Book Tour into the search box. You’ll see a Pump Up Your Book “trailer,” featuring all the books on “tour” this month.
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