About Elizabeth:
After she got over her dream of being a Solid Gold Dancer, Fournier promptly headed into the local funeral home and asked for a job, any job. She became the live-in night keeper which meant she resided in a trailer in the far reaches of a large, hilly cemetery and slept with a shotgun near her bed. It was the scariest summer of her life.
She is currently the voice of the autopsy exhibit in the forensic wing at the United
States National Museum of Medicine and a full-time mortician. She is also a ballroom dance instructor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. But she couldn’t resist writing the story of her unusual method of dating that led her to the love of her life.

I recently published a memoir and one of my favorite perks has been the e-mails I receive from women wanting advice on dating. But there are equal numbers of women who also want my secrets about publishing. I am more than happy to share.

For many aspiring authors, publishing a book is a dream come true. But if she has to rely on the traditional book publishers to get her writing on the market, it can be a very lengthy ride.

I was a novice writer trying to get my manuscript launched and having a hard time being placed since I had an off-beat subject with a wacky title. I received creatively written rejection letters from publishers that praised my writing but honestly stated they didn’t know what to do with me. How could they market a small-town mortician who went on 77 blind dates in search of a husband?
I decided to learn about the world of self-publishing. Here is a summarization of some key points I think are essential:

Belief Power: Authors who self-publish their books believe deeply that others will benefit from reading what they have to say. Love what you wrote and fully trust that you will achieve whatever goal you set for yourself. Self-publishing is only for the self-motivated. Do know there is enough reward for everyone, so grab your slice of the pie, ladies.

Brilliant Cover: Clearly people judge books by their covers and if your cover does not look like it was professionally designed, it won’t sell as many copies as you’d hope. Take the time and do research. Go to the section in the bookstore that you would find your book and get ideas from the covers that are already there.

Build Buzz: Build it in advance for your release date. Authors must never loose sight of the fact that books are written to be sold. If no one knows about, or anticipates your book’s release, then your initial sales will be low and disappointing, making it difficult to cover the initial investment and even harder to play catch-up. Aggressively drive your book early on into the marketplace.

Business Plan: Market, market, market! Make sure you are prepared to be your book’s best saleswoman to get your work the attention it deserves. You need to be aware of your personal marketing abilities, and in order to get your book sold, you have to get out there and sell it. You are an unknown author and you have to market and sell yourself and your product. Even if you have written an excellent book you need to find ways to get noticed. Do something to promote it every day.

You can win a copy of her Fournier book right here!  How, of course, is what we all want to know.  This one is going to be swift.  Gonna give you an opportunity to enter and bam, I’m picking a winner.  Here’s the way it works:

1.  Leave a comment here on why you would like to win a copy of her book. (Make sure you leave an email address so I can find you if you win.)

2.  After you have done the initial entry of leaving a comment here, you can gain extra entries by:

• • tweet the following “@jareason, go read about Elizabeth Fournier’s story on http://www.momecentric.com” and then return here and leave a comment here with a link to the tweet
  • blog about the contest on your blog, linking to this post and come back and leave a comment here to your post

You have to do entry 1 before you can you do any of the extra entries.  And, you can enter each day using each of the 3 methods between now and May 15th.

Ready, Set, Go!