Who is Dorothy Thompson, the lady? Describe an ordinary day in your life.
Try overworked? Goodness, you don’t even want to imagine what I go through. The Pump Up business keeps me at it 24/7. I love it, but it’s an extraordinary amount of time involved to keep it running. If you’re not making sure the present tours are running smooth, you’re finding tour hosts for the next set of authors going out. It’s more involved than you could ever imagine — lots of sleepless nights and plenty of caffeine, but you know, I live for this. I have met so many wonderful people and a lot of them have become lifelong friends. Not only that, the blog hosts I do want to mention have been incredible. Everyone has really made this such an incredible experience and I hope the authors leave with the same feeling. I do give it my all because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to having others trust me to do what they paid me to do.
As an author and publicist, what is your greatest reward?
It’s got to be the people I have become involved with since I started Pump Up. We have an incredible lady who is working with me now named Nikki Leigh who basically saved me when my last partner left. I do want to mention her because at the time she came on board, I was handling seven authors on my own and she agreed to take one for me, thus lifting my workload. It’s incredible the amount of time you spend for just one author and handling seven at one time was a bit much even for me. She is incredible, fast, and knows the business and knows how to promote. That’s what I look for in a partner because this type of business, you have to know online promotion. She’s a whiz, that’s all I have to say.
But, it’s also people like you, Mayra, because if it weren’t for the many blog hosts who we have contracted to host these tours, there would be no Pump Up. I thank you and all of my authors thank you and everyone else who have helped make Pump Up a success.
Leave us with some witty words of wisdom.
At 1:14 in the morning, you want words of wisdom? Okay, here’s the lowdown. Don’t underestimate the power of virtual book tours. While you look over the different stops that my authors appear on and you start to thinking that it looks like a bunch of tours thrown together, what you aren’t seeing are the ways we use these stops to further promote your tour. There are press releases being sent out that end up in Google News. We announce your stops on writer’s boards and social networking sites. We are submitting your interviews to publications that end up in Google News, also. We go the extra mile. What the casual observer sees is not the whole picture.
Article comments
1 - Prada Jones
Very good article!
2 - Mary Emma Allen
Wonderful interview! You had some great questions, Mayra, that brought forth much helpful information from Dorothy that every author can use. Every time I read something Dorothy has written, whether in her blogs or in an interview, I learn something more about book promotion. I host many of Dorothy's authors on my blog and enjoy working with her...and have ever since my story was published in her first anthology.
3 - Linda E. Austin
Great interview with Dorothy, and very informative. Good links, too. There's so much out there in the way of promotion that it's almost overwhelming, but presentations and internet marketing are the way to go.
4 - Alma Bond
Please let me know your fees.
Thank you,
Alma Bond
5 - Dorothy Thompson
Thank you everyone and especially Mayra for being so kind to ask me over here. As for my fees, all you have to do is go to my site and the fees are right there on the website. [Personal contact info deleted]. ;o)
6 - Toby Heathcotte
I enjoyed the article very much. It has helpful ideas.
Best,
Toby
7 - Kathleen Gage
Wow Dorothy! Great information. Very detailed and truthful. You certainly don't sugarcoat the reality of blog tours for authors.
Enjoyed reading your information.
Kathleen Gage
8 - heather (errantdreams)
There's so much incredible information in here. I think virtual book tours are a brilliant idea.