Welcome to Sherry Gloag

Welcome to today’s Friday Friend, Sherry Gloag. Sherry writes stories that go right to 'The Heart of Romance'. First she introduces herself:

"Why don't you try writing a book?" The oft-asked question hit the air again.
"Who would read it if I did?" I asked my innocent looking husband. He'd learned my secret many years ago, and sporadically 'poked' at my lack of self belief.
"You won't know until you try!" He dropped his bait into the air between us, and for some reason, a few years ago now, I decided to bite.
And am I glad I did?
Not only do I enjoy meeting the characters who demand their stories are told, I have also met and made many wonderful friends, both on line and elsewhere, in the process.
One day my work-in-progress stalled over a stubborn scene that refused to come right, so in frustration I tried turning it into a stand-alone short story in an attempt to find the flaws.
That scene eventually honed down satisfactorily, but left me with an insatiable desire to venture into the world of short story writing.
How could I know, at the time, that the truculent scene would send me off on a new and exciting writing path?
I wrote my first stand-alone short story in July 2009 which, with several others, is now published in LASR
More recently I have discovered the challenging world of reviewing.
For as long as I can remember I've read romances, and am proud to be part of the 48% of readers who enjoy romances.
My first attempt at writing one, was confiscated by my teacher when they realised I was ignoring my homework for my 'great masterpiece'! Sadly I never saw it again! And so my teacher saved the great reading population from what was surely a great master-disaster.

Now I'm back... and delighted with the growing success of my short stories, and jubilant about the release of my debut novel The Brat in October 2010 with The Wild Rose Press.

2011 opens with the release of my sixth short story, Hogmanay, at LASR, and the release, on February 11th, of my second novel, Duty Calls. Also my first venture into a 'longer-short-story of approximately 12k words, The Wrong Target, which is part of the 'Cupid Goes Wild' anthology, released by eTreasures comes out in early February.

Sherry now introduces a new topic to Heroines with Hearts – book trailers:

Businesses rely on them. We are bombarded by them, all the time. What am I talking about?
Advertisements. Television advertisements in particular.
We may claim to dislike them and to ignore them, but they seep into our subliminal consciousness and the more we are bombarded by them, the deeper the message becomes embedded.
For a moment, stop and consider the number of websites you visit that have advertisements inserted in/on them. Almost all of them contain movement. Movement that is out to attract your attention. You could call those advertisements ‘trailer-ads’.
They work! They bring in the customers. If they didn’t companies wouldn’t spend millions on a thirty to sixty second message intended to part us from our cash.
Here in the UK we used to endure three breaks in each hour of TV viewing, now we get four. That’s an extra three hours advertising revenue in every twenty-four. That is also a great deal of commercial money shelled out to grab the viewers’ attention.
So why am I banging on about it?
If it is such a sure-fire way of grabbing customer attention why not consider using the same tactic for advertising your book?
Book trailer videos are becoming more popular and are not that difficult to create, depending on what you want. If you are not sure, do not despair, all you have to do is Google ‘How to create a Book Trailer video’ and you will find pages of instructions to follow.
It becomes a matter of which tutorial you want to follow. And away you go. It took me a while to get the hang of the basics, but once I had them I enjoyed myself. I don’t aspire to creating a complex video, and believe me, there are some awesome book trailers out there.
If this is a promotion tool you’ve never tried but would like to, then put ‘book trailers into the YouTube search and see what comes up.
Study several and work out what it is you like about your favourites. Make notes, about timing, colour synchronicity, content, both visual and textual.
Go back to your own book and work out ten headliner sentences that describe your book and go searching in the multitude of sites that offer photograph or video clips that suit.
When you complete your masterpiece and upload it to YouTube you can then take it up another level and enter your video in one of the many book trailer competitions out there. It is an amazing way to get free publicity for both your trailer and of course, your book.
The book trailer I entered in a competition received over one thousand hits in the thirty days of the competition.
And all this is free.
Free publicity, free promotion. Creating enormous potential for increased book sales!
Most PCs provide Movi-making software, and there are plenty to download for free if you want something else.
And if you want a book trailer but don’t have the time or inclination to create one yourself, you will find several sites happy to offer their services to you.
Since October 2010 I have enjoyed three book releases and created videos for all of them.
From the first, I learned a video over one and a half minutes is considered too long.
So the next challenge was to create about ten sentences for each of my novels that guaranteed to grab the readers’ attention and persuade them to buy my books.
Would they entice you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smB8gnUSHak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7U6jOH9DiA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM19_O6podE
If not, study them and decide why not, and then when you sit down to create your own video, you will have learned what NOT to include.
This is an awesome, free promo tool for selling your book, and one well worth adding to your ever increasing arsenal of promotions tools.

Thank you very much for having me here today.

Thanks for being with us, Sherry.  We wish you every success with your books and with your future writing c career.

Sherry’s second novel, Duty Calls, was released in February 2011.

She’d saved his life…


Rafe Hawk refuses to accept the inheritance, of a large English estate, and the title that goes with it, after his birth father’s death because the man chose duty over the woman he loved and their son. So when he finds himself temporarily living at Kinsale Hall, he’s not prepared to trust anyone associated with the place, including Trudi Delaney and her daughter.
So why, when he looks into their eyes, does he suddenly remember a woman who may have lost her life after a storm while saving his over a decade ago?
Now he could destroy hers.

Instinct warns Trudi Delaney the arrival of the contemptuous American architect at Kinsale Hall will change her life forever. Especially when she discovers he spends so much of his time in areas of Kinsale Hall off-limits to visitors. Eleven years after escaping from her psychotic husband with a stranger, she’s still plagued by nightmares of events she can’t remember. Events such as, who fathered her beautiful daughter?
Now more than a decade later, she is confronted by another stranger. Will this one destroy everything she holds dear?

To Buy:
All Romance: http://tinyurl.com/5vujr53
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004NBZL10
Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004NBZL10

Excerpt:
“Stop the car!” Rafe Hawk swung round to face the driver. “I recognise this road. You never said the commission to build those retirement units was at Kinsale Hall. You know damn well I swore never set foot in the place again, eleven years ago.”

Rage hazed his vision. “You knew I’d refuse the commission if you’d revealed the location, and because you withheld that vital information, Arthur, this contract is null and void.” He shot forward in his seat when Arthur tramped on the brakes.

His friend from their Uni days skewed round in his seat. “How long have we known each other?”

Startled by Arthur Clifton’s question, Rafe hesitated. “What’s the length of our friendship got to do with anything? Other than the fact you’re stretching it very thin, if you think I’ll set foot on Kinsale territory again.” He swung open the car door and leaped out, his fingers tunnelling through his windswept hair.

Brilliant blue skies overhead offered a large playground for the early summer sunshine, and the fluffy white clouds sailing by. He saw the high chimney-tops through the trees.

“Do you really think I’d bring you here without a very good reason?” Arthur remained in his seat, his hands on the steering wheel, watching Rafe pace up and down the soft verge beside the open-topped car.

"I can't think of a single reason good enough that justifies you resurrecting events that nearly cost me my life, and possibly cost the life on an unknown woman."

Learn more about The Brat at-
http://www.sherrygloag.com/blurb-and-excerpt.php
To buy:
The Wild Rose Press: http://tinyurl.com/6g8pomj
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Brat-Sherry-Gloag/dp/1601548257
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.com/The-Brat-ebook/dp/B0044XV850/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288260544&sr=1-1-catcorr

Read about The Wrong Target at –
http://www.sherrygloag.com/blurb-and-excerpt---twt.php
To buy:
Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/49auwtm
Amazon.co.uk: http://tinyurl.com/6kkoscq
eTreasures: http://tinyurl.com/6dyen5a

Sherry Gloag’s Blog: http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.com/
Sherry Gloag’s website: http://www.sherrygloag.com/