LDS author Josi Kilpack is releasing a new book this week and granted this exclusive author update to Families.com to tell us more about it.
Josi, with the release of this newest book, you’ll have seven books on the shelf. How does that feel?
It’s amazing, one of those pinch-yourself moments. Ten years ago I’d written nothing, and had considered writing a novel about as often as I considered becoming an Electrical Engineer. To look back on that now is to be in awe of the path my life has taken and the gifts God gave me that I didn’t know were there. It’s been an exciting, humbling, and satisfying journey.
Your new book “Sheep’s_Clothing” is about internet predators. How difficult was it to write this story?
“Sheep’s_Clothing” is different than anything else I have written. I love to read suspense and have had some suspense-elements in previous books but this is my first suspense novel. Through the whole thing I worried it was too obvious, too subtle, too dark, too unrealistic, too different, too intense, too dry or too-something. It was new territory and I wasn’t sure I knew how to use the GPS. I cut a lot of pages, moved things around a great deal and did several rewrites. I also wrote it in about four months, which was very difficult for me to do. In the end I am thrilled with the result but anxious to hear what readers think of this new direction.
You have revolutionized the standard “book signing” with your idea for “opening nights.” Can you explain to our readers (many of whom are aspiring authors) how an opening night works, and how it differs from a traditional book signing?
An opening night is a big celebration for the release of a new book. I hold mine at my local bookstore, and we have prizes, refreshments, discounts and a grand prize drawing. The point is to make a splash, and have a reason to advertise like crazy. I do newspaper ads, articles, posters around town, post cards and e-mails to my mailing lists. I did inserts in my local water bill this time, online marketing and lots of word of mouth. Book signings are a dime a dozen and quite frankly not my favorite thing to do. Too often I feel like the lady in the grocery store trying to give you a sample of pineapple sausage–except that my book is my heart and soul. So I make the release a party, I invite everyone I know and let them share in the excitement of my night. I then feel justified in doing less book signings later on, focusing all my energy on this one event, giving higher sales to the bookstore and doing my part in promotion. This year I will be doing a Salt Lake, Utah signing on May 12 and a Logan, Utah signing later in the month to accommodate out of town people, but the Opening Night Party is truly an event. For more information on planning your own Opening Night Party, I blogged about it last year.
Thank you for updating us on your new book and for telling us how to plan and hold an opening night, Josi. I think that’s a strategy that could work for nearly any type of business promotion and not only for the release of a book.
Stay tuned for a review of “Sheep’s_Clothing” here at Families.com. And, if you’d like more information on Josi’s upcoming opening night party, be sure to visit her website.
Related Blogs:
Tristi’s Picks: Best Novels Read in 2006