Pimp My Blog: Cheap Indie Author Spotlight

Hello Everyone!

My fifteen seconds of fame on my blog are over. Time to get back to the author spotlight, so I can focus on marketing and my next project for a few days. Next on the spotlight list is Stephen Brayton who has authored what looks to be a great thriller. Welcome Stephen!



1. Tell us about your book(s).

My eBook, Night Shadows, is about a Des Moines, Iowa homicide investigator teaming up with a FBI agent to solve the series of brutal murders. While dealing with personal problems, the unlikely duo find themselves battling malevolent creatures from anther dimension. The book will be released February 15, 2011, from Echelon Press. You can check out the details at www.stephenbrayton.com.


2. How did you go about getting your book published?

I met an editor, Mary Welk, at the 2009 Killer Nashville writers’ conference. She was actually interested in acquiring short stories for Echelon, but in our talk gave me permission to send in submissions for two novels. (By the way, the second novel, Beta, was also accepted for release in July, and recently four of my short stories were accepted.)

3. Tell us about your marketing strategies.

I met another author/editor at the 2010 conference and became part of her ‘posse’. Every week she seeks out various interesting blogs and websites and lets her posse members know about them. We then visit the sites, read the blogs and make comments. Social networking. Plus, I’m part of Facebook and Twitter (of course), and several mystery and author sites. I’ve also been interviewed for a paranormal radio show and have visited colleges for writers’ workshops. Plus, on my blog I do regular author interviews. Currently I’m interviewing Echelon authors, but will soon branch out to others.

4. What's the best advice you could give to new writers who want to get published?

Keep writing and don’t give up. Do your homework on publishing, especially small presses. Attend conferences for contacts. Edit, edit, and edit some more on your story. If you get accepted, promote fellow authors in that company.

5. What are you reading? (I added this question to give every author the opportunity to lend to support to other authors coming up in the ranks like we are. :)

I have hundreds of books in my library waiting to be read. I really like the old Shadow and Doc Savage series. Plus Queen, Stout, and Pelecanos are on my list of upcoming authors to read.

Thanks for the awesome post.

The next spotlight author is Kristina Meister!