Sheryl Connelly of Eternal Press Marketing Interviewed

Okay so I have the Marketing Manager for Eternal Press Sheryl Connelly here in the Backseat sipping her dark chocolate hot cocoa with marshmallows and NOT sharing. Well not sharing the cocoa anyway.

Sheryl Connelly: lol. Sorry- it doesn't travel well along the fiber optic lines--- or so Google tells me.

Terry Kate: Excuses, excuses. I will have to make you dish some yummy details about Eternal Press instead. -Sigh-

SC: OOOOOOOO-- and do I have some dirt to shovel!

TK: Good I love to play in the mud so tell me what is going down inside the walls of your independent Press?

SC: Lots of stuff, but the latest being our merger with Damnation Books.

TK: Well damn what does that mean for you both?

SC: It means some pretty awesome stuff, actually. Damnation is a niche market publisher. Paranormal is their specialty. Eternal Press publishes all genres, but our Erotica/Fever lines are the most popular, so this aquisition allows us to focus on where we are really strong. Damnation also brings with them outlets for sales that we don't have and visa versa. And the marketing! Whew wee! Be able to combine efforts and budgets will really help us get a solid ROI for our advertising dollar.

TK: Oh are you each keeping your names or will it be Eternal Damnation Press!

SC: LOL  I kind of wondered that myself... Eternal Damnation... Catchy, isn't it? But no, for now we are keeping both company names and lines separate. Pooling resources if you will.

TK: might carry some unwanted connotations, attention grabbing though. Never know when the combo name might come in handy.

SC: Absolutely.

TK: So what is it a Marketing Manager does?

SC: Everything.... including the kitchen sink...lol My job is to not only promote our authors, but Eternal Press. To create a long term advertising/mareting strategy for the company that will help us grow and sustain that growth. The challenge in that is finding new and creative ways to promote in a down economy.

TK: Times and promotion is changing as with everything else. How much responsibility does the author have in promoting their book?

SC: At Eternal Press, we expect the author to be very involved in the promotion process. With 6-8 new release authors very month, the marketing department has a very small window of opportunity (30 days) to get the word out and generate excitement. When offering a contract to the author, we are very clear that they MUST be involved in the promotion of their work. If they choose not to, it will be a consideration in future submissions.

TK: I know authors hate to hear this, but they need to be promoting all year too. If the book is available PROMOTE.

SC: We have lots of opportunities that we offer and online workshops teaching them HOW. Some authors are very promo savvy Others aren't. We address the gammet so long as they are willing We are a two man marketing crew at EP... we'd LOVE to do it all, but it's impossible. So we've learned to work SMARTER, not harder. And encourage our authors to do the same.

TK: What is a smart way to promote?

SC: Social Networking It is low cost, yet effective when done the right way.

TK: Are you telling me to Twitter, Yahoo Group? Where do we go? Besides my fabulous site...

SC: I think the Yahoo group is dying. I've found more authors promoting there than readers... and an author NEEDS readers. I've heard the addage- "But author's also read." My answer: Sure they do, but when you are faced with the choice of buying a new book or buying promo materials for YOUR book, which one would you choose?

TK: So where do you see Eternal Press and Damnation going in 2010. What can readers look for from you guys?

SC: Over the next 12 months you'll see more print advertising from us.  RWA  RT We will probably go down to 4-6 new releases per month on the EP side too. Since Damnation will be handling the paranormal market.

TK: Well, I suppose you shared enough info to make up for the hot cocoa. Sheryl thank you so much for talking with me. Please learn more about Eternal Press at their SITE